OBP Posted December 9, 2015 Report Share Posted December 9, 2015 Hello, we want to venture into Lustre Glazes and have read Greg Daly's book on Lustre. In his lustre glaze recipes he uses Bismuth Nitrate. However some of the pigment glaze recipes use Bismuth subnitrate and our local ceramic supplier can only provide Bismuth Subnitrate. Would any one know what the difference is and if we could use Subnitrate in Greg's Lustre Glaze recipes? We are based in the u.k Best wishes Mary North + Brian Evans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High Bridge Pottery Posted December 9, 2015 Report Share Posted December 9, 2015 Bismuth NitrateMolecular formula Bi(NO3)3.5H2OMolecular weight 485.07Bismuth SubnitrateMolecular formula Bi5O(OH)9(NO3)4Molecular weight 1461.99 Ok, so if I understand this right then molecular weight is a unit that can be anything you want it to be. First the Subnitrate has 5 Bi compared to the Nitrate so I think you should divide that by 5. I think that now means there would be 1 Bi in 485.07 Nitrate to 1 Bi in 292.398 Subnitrate. or 1.66:1 Nitrate:Subnitrate This could be atomic weight, Kg weight, whatever weight you want it to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Coyle Posted December 10, 2015 Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 Bi atomic weight is 209 that means the ratio of Bi to Bismuth Nitrate is 209/485 or about 43% by weight and for Bismuth Subnitrate (209 x 5) /1462 or about 72% by weight So the Bismuth Subnitrate is a better buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OBP Posted December 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Thankyou so much to both potters who helped us with this. We now know to substitute 0.6g Bismuth Subnitrate for 1g Bismuth Nitrate in Greg Daly's Lustre Glaze recipes. It really helps to start with the correct glaze recipe when there is so much to learn with the reduction firings as well. Thankyou, Mary North + Brian Evans, Keighley,United Kingdom. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High Bridge Pottery Posted December 12, 2015 Report Share Posted December 12, 2015 Good to see mine and Bob's match up. Had to do a bit of reading again to relearn how to work out this stuff. Been a long time since I learnt how to do some glaze calculation before just relying on software to do it for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Coyle Posted December 12, 2015 Report Share Posted December 12, 2015 Yeah High Bridge. We become more and more dependent on our electronic goodies. I have almost lost the ability to do math without a calculator. Lord help us all if the power goes out and the grid goes down! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted December 16, 2015 Report Share Posted December 16, 2015 Yeah High Bridge. We become more and more dependent on our electronic goodies. I have almost lost the ability to do math without a calculator. Lord help us all if the power goes out and the grid goes down! Pit fire!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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