Kathi LeSueur on thu 28 jan 99
In a message dated 1/28/99 7:54:51 AM, you wrote:
>If you really are a 'potter' who plans to keep potting, your
>whole bag purchase is as good as money in the bank. Not only
>will you pay much less per pound to start with, but in 10 or 15 years
>the value will likely double.
David,
I've alway tried to follow a similar approach although I have a space problem.
But it's good to develop a relationship with your supplier. Keep your ear to
the ground for upcoming shortages, mines that are being depleted. I heard a
rumor fifteen years ago that albany slip was not going to be mined any more. A
little research told me the rumor was true. I bought every bit I could get my
hands on. And as a result I have enough to last through my career. That's of
course assuming I don't keep potting as long as Beatrice Wood.
Kathi
David Hendley on thu 28 jan 99
Take a sample of the 'good stuff' with you when you
go rutile shopping. You can tell quite a bit by texture and color.
If you're still not convinced, buy one pound and go home and
try it immediately, and go back and buy a whole bag if you like it.
If you really are a 'potter' who plans to keep potting, your
whole bag purchase is as good as money in the bank. Not only
will you pay much less per pound to start with, but in 10 or 15 years
the value will likely double. Not quite the S & P 500, but a
healthy 10% or more return on your investment.
(I never had an extra thousand dollars lying around, so I buy my
cobalt a pound or two at a time.)
I'm still on my 50 pound bags of granular illmenite, copper carbonate,
and manganese dioxide and red iron oxide (100 pounds) that I bought
in the 70's. I paid about one-quarter of today's prices, and have had
consistant materials all these years. My supply of rutile ran out just
last year. I'm happy to say that my local supplier had a material that
seems identical to the old rutile.
If anyone's interested, I bought it at Trinity Ceramic Supply and it's
labeled as 'weld rod titanate rutile product', from TAM Ceramics in
Niagara Falls, NY (716) 278-9400.
(Another advantage to buying the whole bag is that you get the bag,
so you know exactly what you have.)
David Hendley,
Maydelle, Texas
At 01:55 PM 1/27/99 EST, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> ...Buy a fifty pound bag, bite the bullet...
>
>Yeah, Louis. Question is, which 50-pound bag? I'm mystified as to how
>to get what I want. Who wants the wrong 50-pound bag? The first rutile
>i used, back at the dawn of potterhood, was "just right". The stuff I
>ordered since then was terrible -- not finely enough milled, although
>called "ceramic grade light". It is specky. Totally different effect
>in the glazes. I'd be happy if i had 50-lb of the first and very, very
>annoyed to have 50-lb of the second. Any suggestions?
>
>Jan Walker
>Cambridge MA USA
>
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