# What the hell is "Potash?"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 26, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436 "2025-01-26T16:25:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 6
### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/101 "2025-01-29T12:29:46Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> I have a magnesium cylinder of identical dimensions (along with a few others, including titanium).
I have tungsten, iron, nickel, niobium, selenium, aluminum, and a few others, including a number of lithium cylinders. Those feel REALLY light. Except, I’m scared of them! I’ve been worrying that I should get rid of them…
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### Author:  [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/102 "2025-01-29T14:20:09Z")
**nearwildheaven** Probably was MTA, mineral trioxide aggregate. It works better then gutta percha but is more expensive and more difficult to use.
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/103 "2025-01-29T18:12:11Z")
> [@Napier](#):
>
> I have tungsten, iron, nickel, niobium, selenium, aluminum, and a few others, including a number of lithium cylinders. Those feel REALLY light. Except, I’m scared of them! I’ve been worrying that I should get rid of them…
We had a replacement water heater installed, and shortly afterward the water started reaking of sulfur. After doing a bunch of research on our state’s water quality, they recommended removing the magnesium rod from the water softener, since it’s not really needed with our water types. I had the plumber remove it (he had to use a freaking huge wrench), and then he wanted to know if I wanted that rod. It looked cool, but I have no idea what to do with it, so he took it for disposal.
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/104 "2025-01-29T18:46:56Z")
I’ve been lowkey looking for some scrap Mg to try to burn. When I find some, it will probably be an alloy and hard to get started but I still want to try.
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### Author:  [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/105 "2025-01-29T18:49:04Z")
Any outdoor equipment store will have magnesium block firestarters with a flint embedded in one side. Cheap and fun to play with and at least theoretically useful in an emergency.
> **[Amazon.com: Coghlan's Magnesium Fire Starter : Coghlans: Sports & Outdoors](https://www.amazon.com/Coghlans-7870-Magnesium-Fire-Starter/dp/B0000CE2D8)**
>
> Use to start fires from a flame source generating 5400-degrees Fahrenheit. One fire starter should provide sufficient shavings to start hundreds of fires.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/106 "2025-01-29T18:50:36Z")
Those work surprisingly well. I can start a fire in one try with them.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/107 "2025-01-29T18:54:21Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> ETAA: I have no idea what gutta percha is. Should I?
I’d heard the term numerous times, but the only time I’ve heard it used in real life is when having a root canal, as that’s often what’s used to fill the cleaned-out root canal.
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/108 "2025-01-29T19:26:28Z")
I’ve messed with shavings and powder (and ferrocerium rods). Now, I want a cracked auto rim, concrete screed, hard drive enclosure or engine block.
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### Author:  [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/109 "2025-01-29T19:33:17Z")
Oh yeah! I agree. When I said they were _theoretically useful_, I was thinking more about the fact that I have to be able to find mine to use it. I own one, _in theory_, but in practice, I might die of cold or starvation before I find it.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/110 "2025-01-29T19:39:40Z")
I keep one in each car, and scattered around the house.
It’s only a matter of _remembering_ that I’ve done that if I ever need to use one…
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/111 "2025-01-29T20:07:13Z")
I’ve read that squirrels remember the location of very few of the nuts they so diligently bury. Most are lost, some are located by smell, and a few are remembered.
Maybe you could attach scents to your fire starters and other kinds of emergency equipment. 😉
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/112 "2025-01-29T21:25:54Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> Yes. Once you realize thus, Borat’s pride in the high quality of “Kazakhstan’s” potassium is less funny/ridiculous!
They have inferior potassium. (Perhaps because their country is run by little girls.)
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/113 "2025-01-29T21:35:46Z")
> [@Napier](#):
>
> including a number of lithium cylinders. Those feel REALLY light.
Yikes! Do you store them under oil? And how were they even formed into a cylinder? The metal is about as hard as refrigerated butter.
Part of me wants a beryllium cylinder, but despite being lower on the periodic table than magnesium, it’s a higher density. Also, it’s freaking beryllium.
I keep meaning to add nickel to the collection. Currently it’s just Mg, Al, Ti, Fe, Cu, and W (all in 50x50 mm cylinders). Nicely covers the density range, but I’d like to have more. I have a giant cylinder of graphite but machining would make a god-awful mess. I also lost access to a lathe, though I may just pick up a mini-lathe.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/114 "2025-01-29T22:42:40Z")
Your mention of Beryllium reminded me …
I have a rather eccentric friend of now advanced years. Decades ago as a young amateur scientist he set out to build his own personal periodic table. He’s got a ~3x4’ coffee table in his house with a printed periodic table attached. And a sample of lots of the elements neatly sitting on their appropriate squares. The few he doesn’t have are insanely expensive, radioactive, or impossible to source.
A lot of the elements he does have would be real hard to source today as the safety regs and “know your customer regs” have gotten tighter. Selling [random dangerous substance] to any yahoo with $20 in his hand is a thing of the past. He was in a bit of a race with tightening regs towards the end of his collecting phase.
He doesn’t have much in the way of family and when he dies I expect his periodic table, hazmat and all, will end up in the municipal trash stream.
Returning from the digression. I expect you know this but …
Beryllium is dangerous. Not much in bulk, but any dust is bad news for humans. Appropriate handling precautions are advised.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/115 "2025-01-29T22:48:54Z")
I thought about assembling a periodic table as well though I never did.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/116 "2025-01-29T22:56:28Z")
To me the idea is sorta futile / doomed at birth. All the “interesting” ones are the ones you can’t get.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/117 "2025-01-29T22:59:58Z")
Theodore Gray of Mathematica fame has a quite nice periodic table table:
> **[The Wooden Periodic Table Table](https://theodoregray.com/periodictable/)**
>
> The Wooden Periodic Table Table by Theodore Gray
It’s about as complete as is reasonable. There are some “cheats”. For instance:
> The longest-lived isotope of radon has a half-life of only 3.8 days, which means you can’t really collect and store a sample of radon: It would be completely gone within a few weeks. But you can seal up some thorium oxide in a glass tube and be sure you always have some. Radon is one of the decay products of thorium, and there will always be some radon gas trapped in the tube. The concentration should be fairly constant, because thorium has a very long half-life while radon has a very short one: There should by now exist in this tube an equilibrium concentration of radon, which perhaps some helpful reader will calculate for me (necessary information: ca. 0.5g of thorium oxide in ca. 0.5cc volume tube).
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/118 "2025-01-29T23:08:58Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#):
>
> I’ve been lowkey looking for some scrap Mg to try to burn. When I find some, it will probably be an alloy and hard to get started but I still want to try.
If you want to mess with magnesium, you can probably buy magnesium ribbon from a chemical supply house. As a kid, I ordered various chemicals from such a place for my various (often ill-advised) experiments. One that I found impressive was generating oxygen, and then plunging a burning piece of magnesium ribbon into a jar of pure oxygen. My parents were unaware of what I was doing down in the basement or that I could have set the house on fire!
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2025, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/119 "2025-01-30T02:22:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Beryllium is dangerous. Not much in bulk, but any dust is bad news for humans. Appropriate handling precautions are advised.
The Good Doctor alerted me to that issue.
> **[Sucker Bait](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucker_Bait)**
>
> Sucker Bait is a science fiction novella by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first serialized in the February and March 1954 issues of Astounding Science Fiction, and reprinted in the 1955 collection The Martian Way and Other Stories. It has also been adapted as an episode of the BBC anthology television series Out of the Unknown.
> Asimov was approached in 1953 by the editor Fletcher Pratt, of Twayne Press, with a story proposal: a scientist would create a world, and then Asimov, Poul And...
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2025, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/120 "2025-01-30T11:09:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> I’ve read that squirrels remember the location of very few of the nuts they so diligently bury. Most are lost, some are located by smell, and a few are remembered.
Plus they don’t know _who_ buried the nut, himself or Larry in the next tree over.
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