LauraLucht

Thanks everyone! Scraping the wash off and re-firing worked magic! Cheers!

Hi Mark! Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your advice to make my own wash in future, and I will likely go that route. First, I am looking for advice on how to remedy the situation with my selves and furniture, and to do it without damaging my kiln. I think I have attached a photo below this time to help you see the discoloration better, and there's an image of the product container on that image as well. Unfortunately, the container doesn't say what the composition is. Yes, I think that is the "newer" description of the same product I used, but my container is probably 13-14 years old now. I am a glass artist. This product had previously worked very well for me (13 years ago). It may be a low-flux wash, however I had used it to protect my shelves while fusing glass and had never had issues with getting it off the shelf. To fully fuse glass you need to fire at between 1300-1650 degrees. I realize this is low-temp compared to ceramics, but thought it might be helpful information here. The person I spoke to at my local shop does think the brown color will burn off and that this issue is related to the dye in the old product reacting. Not sure what you mean by "wire wheeling it off," but if you mean to sand the product off of the shelf, then yes. That was my gut instinct too. I was easily able to sand the material off the half shelf, but after sanding there are some dark brown specks left in the porous shelf. My hope is that will burn off easily. Thanks again for your advice and reply.

So, I fixed up my old kiln after a 13 year break from glass art, and unpacked some old Hotline High Fire Self Wash (powder). I didn’t really think the age of the powder would have a negative effect. I mixed w/ water as instructed, coated all four of my kiln shelves with 4-6 coats each, let it all dry completely, then fired it to 600, held for 30 minutes (watched the entire time), and this morning I discovered everything washed in my kiln went completely dark brown (burnt) including all my kiln furniture (didn’t have wash on it), and the brick inside the kiln is even a bit singed looking. It never went over 610 degrees. FYI, I had fired the kiln prior to this fire to 1650 degrees, and it had been fired after the elements and brick were replaced too 1400. Nothing like this happened before the freshly applied kiln wash. A local ceramic/ kiln shop recommended I re-fire one self at 1250 with the brown primer on it to “see what happens,” I guess she thinks it could burn off? Then she said once the self is cool I should scrape it, apply new kiln wash and re-fire. My gut says I should scrape all of the shelves first and re-fire them with the kiln furniture (also turned brown), but without the new wash on it, let them cool, then apply new wash? I just don’t want to do more damage to these items What would you do next? Any advice is appreciated! Laura P.S. See photos of post cured shelf wash, full size image shows the furniture, shelves and inside kiln too.