Olivia T Cavy on mon 4 jan 99
Happy New Year Everyone!
I just spoke with Dr. Roland Hale, the director of the Alfred Analytical
Laboratory, about getting a silica analysis of my 30 gallon sample of
fireplace ash (which is mostly spruce). He suggested making sure I get a
representative sample, by taking equal quantities from the top, the
middle and bottom of my trash can. Then he said to put 1/2 to a cup in a
1 quart plastic bag. So it can be mailed flat he suggested using a 1
quart size bag. (My sample has already been sieved through a window
screen, and is already quite well mixed.) The cost is $10 (include a
check payable to Alfred Analytical Laboratory) to analyze it for the one
ingredient.
I know that someone else was asking about this recently, and wanted to
share this information. BTW Dr. Hale was a delightful person to speak
with, and he mentioned that he is still looking for glazes to analyze. To
have your glaze tested, he prefers a container that holds at least a cup,
because they like to fill it with their testing liquids. They are
planning to publish a paper with the results.
Send your samples to:
Dr. Roland Hale
Alfred Analytical Laboratory
4964 Kenyon Road
Alfred Station, NY 14803
607-478-8074 or fax at 607-478-5324
Bonnie
Bonnie D. Hellman
Pittsburgh, PA
work email: bdh@firstcaptl.com or oliviatcavy@juno.com
home email: mou10man@sgi.net
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Thonas C. Curran on tue 5 jan 99
Bonnie...Did I miss something? Are there any particular glazes which
Dr. Hale is looking for, or does he analyze anything that comes along?
Does he test for lead or does he analyze the glaze as a whole or what?
TIA...
Carolyn aka CNC
>
>
Martin Howard on tue 5 jan 99
Is there a similar service in GB that ClayArters know about? It would be
so useful to be able to send an ash, or any other substance which we
want to use as an RM, such as my slop from the tray of a Stone Mason, to
an expert for an analysis at reasonable cost.
I am at present using Willow Ash, Oak Ash and a general rubbish ash, but
for the first two rely on the analyses in Phil Rogers "Ash Glazes".
Of course those may be quite correct, but I have my doubts.
Does anyone have really modern, up to date analyses of ash glazes
derived from particular trees or plants?
Martin Howard
Webbs Cottage Pottery and Press
Woolpits Road, Great Saling
BRAINTREE
Essex CM7 5DZ
01371 850 423
araneajo@gn.apc.org
Olivia T Cavy on thu 7 jan 99
Carolyn,
Dr. Hale is providing a service (quite reasonably priced IMO at $10 per
material analyzed). He works for the lab which is a New York State
facility. He's particularly interested in analysing glazes for release of
harmful materials (lead, chromium, vanadium, cadmium are a few of the
ones he mentioned to me). He's hoping that people will send him their
samples along with the glaze recipes, and that when he has enough to draw
some conclusions he'll write an article to be published. This part of his
work was mentioned by whichever Clayarter first published Dr. Hale's
address within the last few weeks.
I called himto inquire about sending him an ash sample because I wasn't
sure if he could run a test for silica, and because someone else on
Clayart has specifically asked about where to get ash analyzed. After
talking with Dr Hale, I suspect the Alfred Laboratory could analyze any
sample of anything to test for anything.
My daughter is an organic chemist and her husband an inorganic chemist,
both PhDs, so I'd first asked them about analysing my ash for silica.
They laughed and laughed, and thought it was a strange request indeed.
Then they discussed how you might go about doing it and decided that
their respective labs at their university didn't really have the
facilities to do it easily. At that point I told them that I thought I
could get it done commercially for $10, and I phoned Dr. Hale. He told me
that he'd been doing those very types of analyses for 35 years and since
so much of their work was for potters, they'd gotten the glaze/clay
ingredient analysis down to a system.
He also told me a story of someone (Dr. Hale will not divulge names or
glazes) who sent him 2 samples, one which had an unacceptable release
level of something bad and the other didn't, although both glazes looked
the same. He did tell me what the material was; I just don't remember
what he said. It turned out that one sample was the plain glaze, which
did leach whatever it was. The other sample was the first glaze with a
thin coating of a clear glaze on top, and it did not leach at
unacceptable levels.
I asked Dr Hale how he would prefer to receive my ash sample, he gave me
specific but easy to follow instructions. Then I mentioned that I had a
favorite black glaze that had 4% manganese (and 4% cobalt and 2%
something else, maybe chrome oxide) that I might send him for testing.
Since I have to make up a test pot, I asked him what he preferred. He
said he really likes a pot that holds at least a cup (8 oz) because they
put various liquids inside the pot, although they can do the analysis
with a smaller sample.
By way of selling the lab's services, Dr Hale reiterated the importance
of knowing that your "food safe" glazes are reallly food safe, and not
releasing improper levels of anything.
I really enjoyed talking with him--as I said in my first Clayart email.
He was a very friendly and sharing man. Anyway, that's the long story of
my conversation with Dr. Hale. Seems to me the price is right and it is
well worth testing any suspicious glazes. We really can't rely on using
less than 10% of colorants and doing a vinegar test if we are publically
claiming to have food safe glazes, although those are good starts, IMHO.
Bonnie
Bonnie D. Hellman
Pittsburgh, PA
work email: bdh@firstcaptl.com or oliviatcavy@juno.com
home email: mou10man@sgi.net
On Mon, 4 Jan 1999 17:19:46 EST Olivia T Cavy
writes:
>----------------------------Original
>message----------------------------
>Happy New Year Everyone!
>
>I just spoke with Dr. Roland Hale, the director of the Alfred
>Analytical
>Laboratory, about getting a silica analysis of my 30 gallon sample of
>fireplace ash (which is mostly spruce). He suggested making sure I get
>a
>representative sample, by taking equal quantities from the top, the
>middle and bottom of my trash can. Then he said to put 1/2 to a cup in
>a
>1 quart plastic bag. So it can be mailed flat he suggested using a 1
>quart size bag. (My sample has already been sieved through a window
>screen, and is already quite well mixed.) The cost is $10 (include a
>check payable to Alfred Analytical Laboratory) to analyze it for the
>one
>ingredient.
>
>I know that someone else was asking about this recently, and wanted to
>share this information. BTW Dr. Hale was a delightful person to speak
>with, and he mentioned that he is still looking for glazes to analyze.
>To
>have your glaze tested, he prefers a container that holds at least a
>cup,
>because they like to fill it with their testing liquids. They are
>planning to publish a paper with the results.
>
>Send your samples to:
>
>Dr. Roland Hale
>Alfred Analytical Laboratory
>4964 Kenyon Road
>Alfred Station, NY 14803
>607-478-8074 or fax at 607-478-5324
>
>Bonnie
>Bonnie D. Hellman
>Pittsburgh, PA
>work email: bdh@firstcaptl.com or oliviatcavy@juno.com
>home email: mou10man@sgi.net
>
>
>___________________________________________________________________
>You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
>Get completely free e-mail from Juno at
>http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
>or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
>
___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
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