Which Glaze Road To Go Down?

[oldlady]

thank you bruce, these both go into my glaze book and i will make them up to cover some things you can see at bluemont.  your pots are so lovely that i am happy to have a glaze you use.

[yedrow]

I don't think you can buy Kona f-4 anymore. I believe Minspar is now its replacement, but I'm not sure how exact that replacement is.

 

Joel.

[oldlady]

thanks, yedrow, i did not know the name minspar.  fortunately i have an 18 gallon rubbermaid tub of Kona F-4 and it is half full.  gotta go spray glazes now, it is going to rain this afternoon.

[MMB]

Some very nice responses in here. I have yet to make my venture to the store, but I will within the next week or so. I actually came across a change in an underglaze with this past firing oldlady.

 

I glazed the inside of my cup with Amacos Black Underglaze then used Coyotes Cone6 clear over top. I wasnt sure if the underglaze would be good at cone 6 but I figured Id give it a go. Now Im not mad it didnt stay black but I was pleased with what it did do. Pretty blues. Yes I know its a poorly thrown bottom

 

[Mark C.]

This is true-

 

(I don't think you can buy Kona f-4 anymore. I believe Minspar is now its replacement, but I'm not sure how exact that replacement is.)

I used traded 18# of F-4 for old c-30 talc which makes my satin matt matt

I still own 2 full 50# bags of Kona F-4

This is another reason to buy bulk materials.

Mark

[oldlady]

thanks min, i will make this one up, too.

 

 

mmb, lovely color, reminds me of van gogh starry starry night.  it is probably because one of the ingredients in making black is cobalt.  i have seen recipes for black that call for red iron and manganese as well as the cobalt.  have experienced commercial black turning blue several times, cobalt is REALLY strong.

 

if you have never accumulated glaze materials it is a little scary to start.  if you read lots of recipes for the temp you plan to fire to you will notice the ones that make up the bulk of the glazes you may use.   you could put a list of those you see in the first recipe on paper and then add new ones and a checkmark next to the ones that are duplicates.

 

you will soon find that many glazes have to have silica, ball clay, frits of various kinds etc.  price out the ones that come up often in large amounts and see that are really inexpensive in 50 lb bags as opposed to just enough to make a few thousand grams.  buying in bulk is the best way as long as you have the space to store large amounts.  good luck whatever you decide.

[oldlady]

test results on these three glazes.

 

overall sherrill was best.  the others, clear 2617 and G1216M each left milkyness on some of the tests.  

 

the green Velvet # 353 underglaze under sherrill was a very dark military green, though the underglaze itself is a nice green.

 

all the other slips i had mixed looked awful under all of the glazes.