All tutorials on this site are copyright protected. They are part of a book that I am currently working on and will  publish  in the near future.

In order to keep our tutorials simple for this web site, we have kept the verbiage to a minimum  There is a lot left up to the viewer to discover. We hope you enjoy these and find them useful.

Making Devit Solution

This is a very simple tutorial on how to make a devit solution inexpensively (spelled--very cheap) and easily. This method is not one I developed. It is one that has been around for a while and is published on many web education sites. I only put it here because it is asked about in every class I teach. So I figure there are still plenty of people who don’t know about it. This solution is great for preventing the white scum on the side of  pendants after grinding.

First, go out and buy a box of 20 Mule team Borax. You will find it in the washing and soap products in your grocery store. You don’t need a lot so buy the smallest box you can.

Next, heat up a pan of about 1-2 pints water. Once hot,  turn off the heat and add some of  the 20 mule team borax. Keep adding until the solution will not hold more borax. Let the mixture cool and decant off the liquid into a bottle. The remaining material in the pot can be reused, but I just discard it.

I now add a few drops of dishwashing soap to the borax solution. This is just to make the solution stick better to the glass. Stir this up and your product is effectively complete. The bottle will still have crystals form on the bottom, but this is not a problem. The solution is super-saturated and the crystals are just the excess borax material.The material can be sprayed on or brushed on. We find it is only necessary on the areas of our pieces that have been ground. Our procedure is to grind the edges of our pendants to the final size. We then use a fine (600 grit) grinder as the final step. At that point we use a brush to put the borax solution on the ground areas only. The piece will then polish beautifully at 1400°F

Note the white crystals on the side and bottom of the bottle. These do not hurt anything.