Ivor and Olive Lewis on thu 6 jul 06
Dear Jenni Meredith,=20
My suggestion would be to test your ideas for yourself. Try to get some =
1200 mesh Silicon Carbide from a shop that sells Gemcutting supplies. =
Not sure of UK addresses now but there was a place in Cornwall called =
Kernocraft which sold such supplies.
I do know from experience that Silicon Carbide can give strange results. =
I was given some Slate dust from Mintaro Quarry. The people told me that =
they had collected from their polishing machines for another potter who =
had not returned to collect it. I said thank you and carried on =
shovelling up the dust from the quarry yard.
I ran a test of 36 samples with both sources. Got wonderful results from =
the yard sweepings and a total disaster, as far as glaze was concerned, =
from the grinding residue. Everything was over fused and had boiled like =
volcanic lava. But the strangest effect was the high degree of static =
electric charge that generated on the surface when it was stroked.
Since carbon is a strong reducing agent, someone may like to try using =
Diamond Dust. This is available in reasonable quantities at relatively =
low prices and the mesh grades are remarkable so a little would go a =
long way. I suppose a couple of grams would cost about $US 10:00 and the =
grain size would be much smaller than SiC
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
South Australia.
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