andros Posted February 11, 2021 Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 Does anybody have a good real technical book about glazes to suggest? Possibly available online… I would like to start making my own glazes. As an hobbist I always used only commercial available glazes, but now I found a couple of good source of a quite big range of raw materials for potters where I can get low quantities at a resonable price. The fact, however, is that I don’t see a big difference between using commercial ready-to-use glazes and slavishly follow a recipe suggested by others… not to mention that often commercial glazes give better results and are more reliable than recipes found around in the internet... I would like not to be bounded to a specific raw material, for example. I found many different recipes with many different raw materials, so I would need to buy many different materials. Why this recipe use one frit, or one feldspar and not another one? Can I use the ones I already have in my shelf instead? One example is Gerstley borate. I could get Gerstley borate also here, but it’s quite expensive and notoriously it has some issues. How can I replace it? I already have a Boron-Calcium-Sodium frit, but what are the right amounts to replace Gerstley borate? Then, why for raku glazes one receipe adds 12% Kaolin + 7% silica to the frit, and another one adds ony 5% of kaolin with no silica? Another use 25% of silica+5% kaolin… Does the difference is given by the different frits used or does they have a different outcome? How can I guess the amount of silica, alumina etc needed to make a glaze sutable for a certain cone or for a raku firing? I have many unanswered questions and, since I have no chance to take a good course, I’m looking for a book that gives me some answers, not only receipes and examples… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted February 11, 2021 Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 I suggest glaze calculation software for you. Insight-live.com is a good one, it has tutorials for altering glazes on it. As far as chemistry goes, I really can't recommend mastering cone 6 glazes by Roy and hesselberth. Its for cone 6 though, I'm not sure what cone you fire to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andros Posted February 11, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 Thank you Liam, I'm going to visit that site for sure! Actually I can only do firings for earthenware at cone 06-07 with electric kiln and raku firings in a home-made raku kiln. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted February 11, 2021 Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 3 hours ago, andros said: The fact, however, is that I don’t see a big difference between using commercial ready-to-use glazes and slavishly follow a recipe suggested by others… not to mention that often commercial glazes give better results and are more reliable than recipes found around in the internet... For some, commercial glazes are just fine, for some they are problematic, don’t work on their claybody, very expensive, pretty much impossible to correct because the recipe is unknown, etc...... Glaze chemistry is pretty straight forward but can be tedious and there is a lot to learn and ....... not all things are known so discovery and creation become a thing as well for a lifetime. Its not for everyone but if you enjoy learning about how clay behaves and want to create a glaze look just not available commercially (there are many) then mixing your own glazes is a thing and glaze calculation helps with designing and substituting one chem for another. It’s definitely not for everyone though. A glaze calculator can help you with substitutions but the what and why part usually takes lots of knowledge outside the calculator. Digital fire on the web is a nice learning resource, Glazy.org is free and will calculate various aspects about glazes. Matt Katz runs a decent college level course (Former Alfred University fellow) on Clay and Glazes that is just that, online and college level. These are a few that range from free, to mostly free, to some expense. I would never return to using commercial glazes exclusively for many reasons but I enjoy the educational aspect of ceramics so glaze chemistry to me is fun, useful and very economical while allowing me to fit a glaze to my claybody near perfect. I have experienced the frustration of that commercial glaze that crazes and pinholes on my claybody all too often early on and not being able to correct it because the recipe is unknown. Definitely not a waste of time for those that enjoy it, definitely a huge difference between commercial, and those question you pose all have answers so it does satisfy those that want to know the answers. Why Silica, why feldspar, why boron etc..... Raku glazes are lowfire for the most and some can respond to surface reduction ........... more glaze chemistry .......... and some combustion science thrown in! I find the knowledge component tends to be addictive for many as many are inquisitive and just have to know the answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Banks Posted February 11, 2021 Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 Science for Potters - Linda Bloomfield Ceramic Glazes Cullen - W. Parmelee A Handbook to Pottery Glazes - David Green Cushing’s Handbook - Val Cushing As for calculation software, Digitalfire's Insight is ok but doesn't plot results on the Stull Chart. It requires a subscription. Hyperglaze is ok too and will plot glazes on the Stull Chart. It runs best on a Mac though. Richard Burkett is offering it free during this %^#*@ pandemic. Glazy.org has become an online cornerstone along with the Digitalfire refernce library. The software at Glazy is well put together and easy to negotiate. The Stull chart adjusts as ingredients are added or changed which is a nifty feature. All three offer much more more than my short description. Glazy in particular makes it easiest to find materials with similar compositions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hulk Posted February 11, 2021 Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 Hesselberth has repriced his GlazeMaster software since retirement - free. Ceramics (digitalfire.com) by Tony Hansen (also author of aforementioned Insight software) - a treasure of info; there are several articles on low fire clay and glazes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted February 11, 2021 Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 A Potter’s Dictionary by Hamer and Hamer is available through that big online South American river place. I got it for $80 something Canadian, and it’s well worth the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denice Posted February 11, 2021 Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 I have never found commercial glazes to be more reliable than glazes you make yourself. They can differ between batches, pinhole and crawl and you have no way of fixing them. You could probably mix it for a fourth the cost of a commercial glaze. Denice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted February 11, 2021 Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 1 hour ago, Callie Beller Diesel said: A Potter’s Dictionary by Hamer and Hamer is available through that big online South American river place. I got it for $80 something Canadian, and it’s well worth the price. This can be found on the used market for 20 bucks sometimes, that's where I got mine. For some reason out of print books on amazon are nutty expensive! Here's a good deal and only 8 dollars shipping to Canada and 1 dollar shipping to US: https://www.biblio.com/book/potters-dictionary-materials-techniques-frank-hamer/d/458882701?aid=frg¤cy_id=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAyJOBBhDCARIsAJG2h5dDam_b81Hvavl3ZKOUwtedDti6jkGApScuwiXMntI7jgt_AiSFCPYaAuOGEALw_wcB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted February 11, 2021 Report Share Posted February 11, 2021 I don’t think Hamer and Hamer is out of print. Mine is a 6th edition reprint from 2015. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andros Posted February 12, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2021 Thank you all for your suggestions! For me actually even the “technical” and theoric aspect of glazes would be very intersting. I’m a material engineer and I attended some course of adavanced ceramics during univerity, and they were definitely interesting. Unfortunatelly (and obviously) these courses had a complitely different point point of view, and materials as well were different in some extent, because for example fluxes and glass formers are complitelly banned in engineering ceramcis. So about “artistic” cermaics I’m almost complitelly illiterate. I know that experimentation is the only way to get real results, but a theoretical base would be at least a starting point just not to do things completely at random. I'm going to take a look and get at least one of these books, even if I'll let you figure out the shipping costs to Italy ...!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andros Posted February 12, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2021 Just a question about Potter’s Dictionary by Hamer and Hamer. Used copies purchased in US are more cheap than a new copy bought on Amazon, even with the shipping cost to Italy. But the new copy (6th edition, 2015) doesn't cost that much more to me. Does it worth paying more for a newer copy or could the 1993 edition be just as good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 19 hours ago, andros said: fluxes and glass formers are complitelly banned in engineering ceramcis. Interesting, why were they banned and when was this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 20 hours ago, andros said: Just a question about Potter’s Dictionary by Hamer and Hamer. Used copies purchased in US are more cheap than a new copy bought on Amazon, even with the shipping cost to Italy. But the new copy (6th edition, 2015) doesn't cost that much more to me. Does it worth paying more for a newer copy or could the 1993 edition be just as good? You might see if there are copies available in UK, might be even cheaper. Hamer and Hamer are a british couple if I remember right. I have the 1986 version and it is fascinating. Another one that is a fascinating read along the same lines is "advanced ceramic manual: technical data for the studio potter" by john w. Conrad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 It’s been a recommended book for quite some time. I can’t see any version being a bad one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sorcery Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 I have a version. Love it. Haven't found a recipe on Glazy that wasn't accurate. Sorce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterH Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 On 2/12/2021 at 8:19 AM, andros said: Thank you all for your suggestions! For me actually even the “technical” and theoric aspect of glazes would be very intersting. I’m a material engineer and I attended some course of adavanced ceramics during univerity, and they were definitely interesting. Unfortunatelly (and obviously) these courses had a complitely different point point of view, and materials as well were different in some extent, because for example fluxes and glass formers are complitelly banned in engineering ceramcis. So about “artistic” cermaics I’m almost complitelly illiterate. I know that experimentation is the only way to get real results, but a theoretical base would be at least a starting point just not to do things completely at random. I'm going to take a look and get at least one of these books, even if I'll let you figure out the shipping costs to Italy ...!! As you have a background in materials ... Have you read Zachariasen's 1932 paper, sort of Pauling's bond theory meets glasses? https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja01349a006 Richard Brow https://web.mst.edu/~brow/ used to host an interesting series of "student notes", I can only see a couple at the moment https://web.mst.edu/~brow/pdf_structure1.pdf https://web.mst.edu/~brow/pdf_structure2.pdf Segar's unity formula tries to capture some of this https://digitalfire.com/article/glaze+chemistry+basics+-+formula%2C+analysis%2C+mole%25%2C+unity%2C+loi ... but has severe limitations with some elements that don't fit neatly into their assigned columns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andros Posted February 15, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2021 On 2/13/2021 at 5:07 AM, Bill Kielb said: Interesting, why were they banned and when was this? Glass makers are banned because engineering ceramics must be complitelly cristalline. Glass phase is amorpous and embrittles them. Electrical characteristincs of some ceramics need a crystalline stucture as well. At the same time glass phase is relatively low melting and some engineering ceramics must face very high temperatures during service. For this reason sintering is almost always "dry" and made at very high temperatures. I know that there's some exception, but this is the guideline... On 2/13/2021 at 4:48 PM, PeterH said: As you have a background in materials ... Have you read Zachariasen's 1932 paper, sort of Pauling's bond theory meets glasses? https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja01349a006 Richard Brow https://web.mst.edu/~brow/ used to host an interesting series of "student notes", I can only see a couple at the momenthttps://web.mst.edu/~brow/pdf_structure1.pdfhttps://web.mst.edu/~brow/pdf_structure2.pdf Segar's unity formula tries to capture some of this https://digitalfire.com/article/glaze+chemistry+basics+-+formula%2C+analysis%2C+mole%%2C+unity%2C+loi ... but has severe limitations with some elements that don't fit neatly into their assigned columns. Thank you Peter, I'll take a look for sure! In the meanwhile I've ordered the Potter’s Dictionary by Hamer and Hamer, I can't wait to receive it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted February 15, 2021 Report Share Posted February 15, 2021 4 hours ago, andros said: Glass makers are banned because engineering ceramics must be complitelly cristalline Interesting, I am familiar with ECAS research of the 80’s and 90’s for production of some electrical hardware and specialized ceramics coatings etc..... Here in the states, traditional glass and ceramics have been widely used along with glaze for many electrical ceramic materials however polymer or EPDM hybrids are being formulated and tested currently. I think you will find much of pottery ceramics originates in the 1800’s if not even earlier and is a simple melting process with heat and flux to reduce the heat needed. Old work is often still very pertinent and form the basis of what we do today. A couple I can think of and suggest: Ceramic Science for the potter - W.G. Lawrence (Willis - Grant) 1916- Ceramic Glazes - Cullen W. Parmelee (Industrial Publications Inc.) 1951- Lots of interesting reading for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlest Kat Posted May 4, 2021 Report Share Posted May 4, 2021 Michael Cardew’s Pioneer Pottery is an excellent in depth book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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