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replacing barium

updated sun 19 mar 00

 

Julia & Chloe on thu 16 mar 00

I looking for a safe (non toxic) and reliable alternative for barium in my
cone 6 soda firing. Most of the recipes contain a percentage of barium to
high to just drop out, and I am already testing strontium as a substitute.
Any suggestions on another combination of chemicals or current dialog about
the toxicity of barium would be helpful.
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David Hendley on sat 18 mar 00

I have found that plain old whiting, calcium carbonate,
can be substituted with no noticeable changes in recipes
with a small percentage of barium carbonate.
A combination of whiting and strontium carbonate would
be a good combination if the recipe calls for larger amounts
of barium.

--
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
hendley@tyler.net
http://www.farmpots.com/



----- Original Message -----
From: Julia & Chloe
To:
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 11:34 AM
Subject: REPLACING BARIUM


| ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
| I looking for a safe (non toxic) and reliable alternative for barium in
my
| cone 6 soda firing. Most of the recipes contain a percentage of barium to
| high to just drop out, and I am already testing strontium as a substitute.
| Any suggestions on another combination of chemicals or current dialog
about
| the toxicity of barium would be helpful.

Ron Roy on sat 18 mar 00

Hi Julia?

Barium is a middle temperature flux. So are calcium, magnesium, strontium
and zinc oxides. If it is there to get a specific colour - like turquoise
from copper or electric blue from cobalt then you are going to be
disappointed with those other fluxes.

Calcium and Strontium oxides is closest to Barium in the periodic table and
may be the better option if it's the colour you want to keep - replace a
little at a time. Remember - small amounts of oxides not already in a glaze
will help with fluxing a lot more than just uping the fluxes that are
already there - this means you can add more alumina and silica to get
better durability.

RR

>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I looking for a safe (non toxic) and reliable alternative for barium in my
>cone 6 soda firing. Most of the recipes contain a percentage of barium to
>high to just drop out, and I am already testing strontium as a substitute.
>Any suggestions on another combination of chemicals or current dialog about
>the toxicity of barium would be helpful.
>______________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

Ron Roy
93 Pegasus Trail
Scarborough
Ontario, Canada
M1G 3N8
Evenings 416-439-2621
Fax 416-438-7849