Frank M. Gaydos on wed 17 nov 99
James,
An alternative would be to ball mill them. I have tons of the little suckers
and most are dried out. Rather than risk polluting the water system with
lead or cadmium by dumping them, I place about forty into the ball mill
grinder and grind for about 8 hours. They come out great!
And if you choose to not use them, try making small throwaway bowls to fire
the stuff in. That will set the glaze and keep it from migrating into the
water table.That way you can sleep at night knowing you won't be drinking
them a year from now.
Anyone in the Philadelphia area, stop by the college and I'll give you a six
pack of 'Pewter Black', Cone 04, we have tons of it. Literally.
Frank Gaydos
.....................................................................Origina
l .......................................................................
> James,
>
> All those little jars of rock-hard glazes? Do your peace of mind and
sanity
> (and your wife and kids) a favor. Throw them away. It's cheaper to replace
> them with something you know you can use if your time is worth anything.
>
> Cindy Strnad
> Earthen Vessels Pottery
> Custer, SD
>
James Roche on thu 18 nov 99
Hello Frank,
At 10:30 17/11/99 EST, Frank M. Gaydos wrote:
>An alternative would be to ball mill them.
Unfortunately, I don't have a ball mill, so it has to be remixed
by hand. That was part of the gripe really.... I don't think
we have room for a ball mill and as it's not a commercial
pottery, I doubt if there's the budget either.
>And if you choose to not use them, try making small throwaway
bowls to fire the stuff in.
That's a good idea, not thought of that. I have about 20
containers of glaze - all solid. :(
James
Anita Rickenberg on fri 19 nov 99
A blender will work for small amounts of hard glazes. Use a cheap one that
is used only for glazes and be sure to clean well between glazes. If you
have trouble getting them out of the container with a utensil (knife or
whatever), add a SMALL amount of water to the container and turn upside.
After it sits for a few days, it will usually seperate from the bottom of
the container.
This has worked for glazes that I use very infrequently but don't want to
throw away.
Good luck!
Anita
Martin Howard on sat 20 nov 99
A thrown-out blender is also fine for grinding down minerals to dust to pass
the finer lawns. I use it for dried cat litter, granite dust and ash from
the pet crematorium.
Question is, how long will it last such treatment?
The coffee grinder gave up the ghost quite quickly.
Martin Howard
Webbs Cottage Pottery
Woolpits Road
Great Saling
BRAINTREE
Essex CM7 5DZ
martin@webbscottage.co.uk
Evan Dresel on mon 22 nov 99
A related tidbit I found interesting is that a friend who was doing
research in experimental metamorphic petrology used a blender to grind
the mica she needed for her experiments. If she used a mortar and
pestle, the crystals "smeared" straining the bonds and changing the
thermodynamic properties so that the reactions were quite different.
The blender chopped the minerals nicely. The degree of crystalinity is
a big issue for clay minerals. The "frayed edges" of illite clays
adsorb ions differently from the flat sides and more perfect edges. I
think we are a long way from having to consider these effects in
pottery, though.
-- Evan in W. Richland WA who saw some swans on his way back from the
wet west side of the state
Martin Howard wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> A thrown-out blender is also fine for grinding down minerals to dust to pass
> the finer lawns. I use it for dried cat litter, granite dust and ash from
> the pet crematorium.
>
> Question is, how long will it last such treatment?
> The coffee grinder gave up the ghost quite quickly.
>
> Martin Howard
> Webbs Cottage Pottery
> Woolpits Road
> Great Saling
> BRAINTREE
> Essex CM7 5DZ
> martin@webbscottage.co.uk
James Roche on sat 27 nov 99
Hello Martin,
At 16:52 20/11/99 EST, you wrote:
>A thrown-out blender is also fine for grinding down minerals to
dust to pass the finer lawns. I use it for dried cat litter,
granite dust and ash from the pet crematorium.
You use cremated remains in your wares? That I've never heard
of. Tell me more!
James
Martin Howard on sun 28 nov 99
James wrote
You use cremated remains in your wares? That I've never heard
of. Tell me more!
Bone china is from the burnt bones of cattle. In the past it may have been
from any animal source or even human. We may have not wanted to know the
real origin of our fine white tea service, but it is likely to contain
animal bones of some kind.
I am just using the modern equivalent; the dust from a local pet
crematorium. It is likely to be about P2O5 42%; CaO 54%; SiO2 3%; MgO 1%
with a trace of Fe2O3.
However that comes from Hamer, Table 2.
To be sure of the analysis, I will have it done for my supply, screened to
180 mesh. It may contain other things because all of the animal is burnt to
dust, not just the bones after the meat has been removed, as would be the
case in a slaughter house.
It's a free material. The half of it which is too coarse to go through the
sieve makes good potash fertiliser for the garden.
Nothing gets wasted at Webbs Cottage!
Martin Howard
Webbs Cottage Pottery
Woolpits Road
Great Saling
BRAINTREE
Essex CM7 5DZ
martin@webbscottage.co.uk
James Roche on sun 5 dec 99
Hello Martin,
At 11:03 28/11/99 EST, Martin Howard wrote:
>Bone china is from the burnt bones of cattle.
My understanding is that bone china is originally an English
invention (am I right about this?) and yes that animal bones are
used, thus the name. I just hadn't made the connection that ash
from pet crematoria could be used instead, not understanding the
technical process used to supply the bone in appropriate form.
Now you mention it, it makes sense to use this source of supply.
>It's a free material. The half of it which is too coarse to go
through the sieve makes good potash fertiliser for the garden.
Nothing gets wasted at Webbs Cottage!
A very "green" potter indeed! :)
James
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