Substituting Strontium Carb For Barium Carb

[eakinclayworks]

I've been looking through my notes to find a general statement about substituting strontium carb for barium carb. I recall reading that strontium percentage should be about 70% of whatever is called for in barium carbonate, but want to make sure my boomer memory is not failing.

[ceramicfundamentalist]

I've been looking through my notes to find a general statement about substituting strontium carb for barium carb. I recall reading that strontium percentage should be about 70% of whatever is called for in barium carbonate, but want to make sure my boomer memory is not failing.

 

 

molecular weights:

BaCO3 = 197.34

SrCO3 = 147.63

 

147.63/197.34 = .748 (~75%)

 

so, you can multiply any amount of barium carb in a recipe by .748 to sub directly for strontium carb.

 

for instance, in a recipe with 10% barium carb multiply by .748 to find that you need 7.48% strontium carb.

 

of course this doesn't ensure the resulting glaze will look the same, but it is a start.

[Guest JBaymore]

Where the barium carb. was mostly sullying baroum oxide as a secondary flux, then the sub to strontium is pretty simple and works well. However where barium oxide is the dominant flux in the formulation, the color and surface will usually change a lot.

 

Those lovely saturated barium blue matts (with copper) don't usually work well with strontium. Color shift...and not so nice "hand" on the surface.

 

best,

 

....................john

[OKpotter]

Where the barium carb. was mostly sullying baroum oxide as a secondary flux, then the sub to strontium is pretty simple and works well. However where barium oxide is the dominant flux in the formulation, the color and surface will usually change a lot.

 

Those lovely saturated barium blue matts (with copper) don't usually work well with strontium. Color shift...and not so nice "hand" on the surface.

 

best,

 

....................john

 

 

John,

 

What is the highest % of Barium in a receipe that I can expect the .748 strontium sub to be successfull without changing the caracteristics of the original glaze?

Thanks, Jim