Tom Wirt on fri 23 jan 98
We recently went to order a new bag of powdered illmenite from
Continental Clay in Mpls. only to be told that it would no longer be
available. Since it's the key colorant in our rutile blue which is about
50% of sales, we had a moment of panic, and then got on the phone.
Here's what we heard....wondering if anyone else has been hearing any of
this.
Rutile and illmenite come mostly from Dupont. The supply is drying up
because of the demand for Titanium taken from the rawer ores. Also,
there seem to be 2 grades of powdered illmenite, 200 and 325 mesh. We
got some from Great Lakes Clay (200 mesh where we'd been using 325). We
found a couple of others who still had 325 and a couple who hadn't heard
of any problem.
The 200 mesh greatly changed the glaze, moving from a nice clear speckled
blue to a rutile blue-green, muddier look. Continental has since come
into some 325 mesh which we're about to test, along with a sample from
Mile-hi in Denver.
Will post the results. Dick Aerni, could this mesh issue have been part
of the problems you were having some time ago with the rutile?
Tom Wirt
Claypot@hutchtel.net
Clay Coyote Pottery
Hutchinson, MN
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