Weird behavior: gallium is soft like a solder ingot, and after cutting off shavings with a razor knife, I find small liquid spots in the original ch unk. Even the smallest scratches with the knife have expanded into ~1mm m elted stripes. Touch the solid surface w/tip of bent paperclip. A minute later a 1mm melted patch appeared at that spot.
Was this caused by warm steel? No, the spots remained liquid for at least an hour. They finally did solidify later, but each small spot is now raise d above the original surface, as if it expanded significantly upon freezing . When I then warm the ~20g chunk in my hand, those spots melt within 30se c, but the rest remains solid. When melted, they're again at the same leve l as surrounding surface.
Apparently a very small iron percentage is decreasing the gallium melt temp by a few degrees. Not totally unexpected. But the volume change during m elt/freeze of iron-contaminated material is very odd.
And no, it doesn't seem to work as magic metal mirror-paint. At least not with new untouched microscope slides. Perhaps I'd have to torch the glass first, to bake out surface moisture.