Pyewackette

@oldlady To what cone did you typically fire this?

You don't need to test the oxides. You need to test the GLAZES, each and every one. Wondering why I can't hold my own opinion on this matter, I'm not telling anyone else what to do or not to do. As far as I'm concerned it is way easier to stick with a few glazes you know are durable and safe. A clear, white, or brown (liner) glaze can easily be found that fits my criteria. Still every once in awhile I'd like to be able to add a splash of color to my liner glaze and still be confident it fits MY criteria. Nobody else has to do as I do. However I would appreciate any help offered in identifying the stains that fit MY criteria. Which mostly just means identifying the oxides I want to avoid in a liner glaze. EDIT: @Min Thanks for the testing link. Bookmarked. I may want it someday.

I fully well realize that others think differently on this issue. However I choose to err on the side of caution. Hesselberg & Ron and Tony Hansen of Digital Fire both raise the issue of not knowing for sure whether or not your glazes are TRULY durable/"safe" without proper lab testing, lemon tests and dishwasher rides notwithstanding. I choose to avoid the more toxic colorants in liner glazes, period paragraph. I would just like to know which ones those are. Thanks.

@Dick White All well and good but there are an awful lot of variables involved in determining whether or not a glaze is stable that won't necessarily show up without lab testing. Since I can't afford said testing to start with (and given there are many ways for a formerly stable glaze to destabilize, such as material changes, firing variations, and mistakes in mixing it up) I have decided to stick with the safest possible formulations for my liner glazes. Plus there's the whole expense issue, as you mention. I'm not particularly concerned about exteriors (its not like I'd use anything leaded) but my liner glazes are another matter. Probably I don't HAVE to be that careful, but I so choose. If I assume the worst and just avoid anything that might be problematic in less than ideal circumstances I'll feel more comfortable splurging on the occasional excursion into "safe" colors in a liner.

@Dick White Any chance your notebook includes info on which of those oxides are potentially toxic in small amounts in a glaze?

@Byrd Don't use the search engine on the site. For some bizarre reason it limits your results to stuff less than 2 years old. Use google and limit the search to ceramicartsdaily. Something like

@Min Wow, ask and ye shall receive! Thanks for that. Now all I have to do is figure out which ones are unacceptably (to me) toxic in a liner glaze LOL! Turns out not EVERYTHING can be found on Digital Fire. Just NEARLY everything. I've also learned what turned a bowl I glazed a weird mixture of purply-brown and gray. A glaze defect known as Boron Blue. Some people actually use that glaze on purpose to make that. I think its hideous. Now if I could only remember which glaze that was ... Probably I can identify it by the list of ingredients on the outside of the bucket. Now all I have to do is enter the entire list of glazes into the glaze calculator LOL!

@Hulk Just wondering - did you chatter the inside of that bowl? Also I've been doing a lot of thinking about liner glazes. I don't want to use any toxic substances AT ALL inside something people are going to be eating out of. At first I thought I could use Mason stains instead of things like cobalt and chromium and copper, but turns out there's no way to be sure of what they used to make the stains. But now I'm thinking, after seeing these bowls, maybe in at least some cases (where the clay body is pretty, unlike the old studio clay that turned out the color of zombie skin at anything above bisque) I could just use a clear. Otherwise I'm good with being limited to white or brown ("safe" colorants) for liner glazes. Is there any reason a clear glaze couldn't work as a liner glaze? Do colorants add anything towards cutlery marking and durability? Anti-crazing?

per Standard Clay

Yesterday and today I felt too grumpy to throw so I glazed some pieces I had that needed it. Why, thunk I, am I feeling grumpy about throwing? Because for weeks now I've been throwing with only porcelain (after experimenting with raku and Balcones Dark, one bowls worth each). And I've gotten BORED with it. This is news to me. I have developed a liking for variety in my clay, and that very recently. I've always been aimed in this direction (and have been counseled in the past NOT to try to work with multiple types of clay) so I think the impulse has been there but unrecognized as I struggled so with the studio clay, switching it up once in awhile with the B mix. So here's my suggestion for QoW - what clay body or bodies do you work with and what do you like about it/them? What is the impetus for working with one or multiple clay bodies? Corollary: do you make your own clay, and why?

@Callie Beller Diesel I don't care for the foam bats, pieces tend to sink unevenly on them. Larger pieces in particular. I haven't got the neoprene yet (its sitting in my Amazon cart pending figuring out whether or not we'll be moving soonish) but I'm thinking the 1/2" neoprene ought to be a decent replacement for the thicker foam bats when I need something to flip a platter over onto to protect the rim, and maybe able to leave it there for trimming. Thanks for the info, now I know the 1/8" stuff is what I need to make a sticky bat. Might try the 1/4" for bigger things, rather than the 1/2".

ok. Now I want to know how this works. At first I thought it must be melting point related but gold melts at a relatively low 1948F, which is around cone 04. Enquiring minds want to know ...