PottaFella Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 The clear glaze cone 6 I am making right now calls for: soda feltspar 70 bentonite 3 lithium carb 3 dolomite 7 zinc oxide 5 quartz (or flint) 12 unfortunately, just realised I don't have any lithium carbonate, can I substitute it with Barium Carbonate which I do have, or a bit more of one of the other ingredients and still get transparent glaze??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 The only other source for Lithium that I know is Lepidolite, a lithium Feldspar.It is not on the market very often. I still have some. I think it would be easier to get a little Lithium Carb. It works well as a wash flux with oxides, so you could use it elsewhere. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Ask your local independent pharmacist for expired Lithium pills. They are 250mg/pill. Why they expire has always been a mystery to me. If you explain how you are going to use them in glazes, he may give you some. Otherwise, he has to pay someone dispose of them... Good luck, Jed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm Stuart Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Dropping the 3% lithium carbonate raises the COE from 7.65 to 7.66, an insignificant change. My best guess is leaving out the Lithium Carbonate should produce virtually the same identical glaze. Adding barium carbonate would provide no advantage I'm aware of and could possibly cloud the clear glaze. Without the lithium, this clear glaze might react somewhat differently with colorants, but probably not. Frankly I don't understand why 3% lithium carbonate was added to this recipe. The addition of the 5% zinc oxide is making this clear glaze into something of a zinc semi-matte. "Mastering Cone 6 Glazes" uses 10% zinc oxide in their Zinc Semi-Matte. Just for reference you can also use spodumene or lithium fluoride as a replacement for lithium carbonate, in addition to substitutes already mentioned by others. Spodumene will be a little less fluxy and lithium fluoride a little more fluxy. But I can't imagine why it was added at all. The clear glaze cone 6 I am making right now calls for: soda feltspar 70 bentonite 3 lithium carb 3 dolomite 7 zinc oxide 5 quartz (or flint) 12 unfortunately, just realised I don't have any lithium carbonate, can I substitute it with Barium Carbonate which I do have, or a bit more of one of the other ingredients and still get transparent glaze??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PottaFella Posted January 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Thanks very much, I may just try without the lithium carb then and hope for best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 leaving out Lithium will affect the colourants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biglou13 Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 What about spodumene? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayjay Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 For a glossy clear ^6 I use:- 20 Potash Feldspar 20 Standard Borax Frit 15 Wollastonite 20 China Clay 6 Talc 19 Silica for a creamy white add 4 Tin oxide If you have those ingredients, this works well for me on Earthstone ES5 and the Standard Buff stoneware at college. . There must surely be even simpler recipes for a clear glaze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Reed Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Spodumene is a sort of Feldspar at least that is what I have substituted it for in a Shino I was working with. I wanted to try it with Lithium. It is a good source of Li2O It has Li2O, AlO3, SiO2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JBaymore Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 You can't simply sub somethiong like spodumene for lithium carbonate. The issues here are understanding that the raw mateial is not what is present on the pot when you open the kiln, the concept of the relative molecular weights of compounds, and the fact that the chemical compounds in different raw materials can provide different compounds in the final melt. Lithium carbonate has the chemical formula LiCO3. In the kiln it converts to Li2O ...... which is what is the flux on silica.... (the carbonate is NOT a flux....it supplies the flux ... important distinction). When you weigh out X grams of lithium carbonate you are weighing out a certain amount of lithim atoms.....but ALSO one carbon and three oxygens per lithium atom. The carbon and some oxygen are given off in the kiln as CO2 gas. If you subsitute spodumene directly for the weight of lithium carbonate in the recipe, the amount of Li atoms in that same X grams in the recipe is going to be WAY different that what you had in the original. And in fact you are also going to ALSO be adding other ceramic active components like alumina and silica. The approximate formula for spodumene is 1 Li2O - 1 Al2O3 - 4.1 SiO2. One molecule of lithium carb gives you one half of a molecule of lithium oxide in the final melt. One molecule of spodumene gives you one molecule of lithium oxide in the melt..... but also one molecule of alumina and 4 molecules of silica. The molecular weight of spodumene is 380.4. The molecular weight of lithium carbonate is 29.8. Relative weights are 380.4/29.8 . Spodumene is almost 13 times heavier than lithium carbonate. If you weigh out the same amount of spodumene as was called for as lithium carbonate..... you are going to get about 1/13th the atoms of lithium as the original recipe,.... plus some alumina and silica that were not there in the first place. This is why one learns glaze calculation.....or at least how to use glaze calc software. best, ...................john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PottaFella Posted January 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Thanks that is very helpful everyone... much appreciated and food for thought!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 I also have personal issues with barium in the studio, but then that is personal. Try recalculating glaze in a glaze program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele Berg Posted September 7, 2018 Report Share Posted September 7, 2018 So, what did you end up doing, and how did it turn out?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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