Removing fired decals

[Sylvie]

Hope someone can help. I have decals that went wrong and I need to replace them with new one. Will the actual decals burn off if refired at cone 6 ? I have 28 pieces that needs to be fixed and I really don't want to try to buff the decals off.

Thank you.

[Mark C.]

Yes they will burn off. Depending on what colorans are in them , They may be clean depending on colorants used in the making . The decal material will be gone -its the colorants that may be hand on. Just high fire tghem and see whats left.

[Sylvie]

Well, I fired one and it didn't burn off. It only faded the color some and it got very glossy. If anybody has a tip to remove them I would appreciate. I will start the buffing process over the weekend.

[Mark C.]

Not sure what you mean about buffing-like car polish??? or rubbing compound? If you want the colorant gone 100% I would grind it off and start again

This also means firing them with a glaze 1st again as decals need a shiny glaze surface to work-so that two more fires. I also would start making new ones

whey did the 1st batch fail??????????-maybe more info would help us determine the issue

Can you explain the process-like bisque fired the pieces and then glazed them with shiny glaze and fire then applied the decals and they where lumpy but I fired them anyway -I'm using this as an example . It hard to give a fix not knowing the details-the more detail the better the fix can be.

 

[Min]

Do you have any "Gold Off" acid paste? Article attached here where the author says if the decal is fired cool (like cooler than ^015) it sometimes works. Given that decals are made from china paints I'm not sure anything will work other than starting from scratch if the pigments have fuzed with the glaze.

[Kelly in AK]

Well, it’s good to know, apparently some decals can be persistent to cone 6. I haven’t done decals, so my thoughts are conjecture (based on knowledge and experience, mind you!).

The first and only thing I could think of to mend these was some wet-or-dry sandpaper. I know it comes in as low as 400 grit, which would be better for removing material than the higher grits. Decals are only skin deep and fired on at low temps. They’re probably a lot softer than the glaze. I’ve certainly removed the outermost layer of a cone 6 glaze with wet sandpaper. Still, x28 is a lot.

They’ll all have to be glaze fired again to heal the scuffing.

The idea of an etching paste is great, that could cut down on the labor quite a bit even if it didn’t remove all parts of the decals. 

[Jeff Longtin]

From what you described, Sylvie, the decal colors have absorbed into the glaze. As they're now glass like I would suggest sand blasting. Find an auto shop/metal shop that does such things and ask if they would help you out.

A friend of mine recently damaged her ceramic tub when she left a vinegar-soaked garment sit in the tub overnight. (It ate through the glossy surface.) You could try leaving vinegar on the offending areas for a day or two?

[Mark C.]

Sand blasting is a great idea-then glaze  again and fire to cone  and then another decal fire. That if the second glaze is sticking and flawless and we all know thats a tough one on refires.

The thing is this all sounds good but will the final outcome look the same or will it somehow look less than perfect after so much torture.

Since we do not know what clay or form or much of anything about the work its all a guess.,

In my world making new work is the most productive approach in terms of a professinal outcome, It always has been for good reason.

All my tips and others to cure the fault are all to save work we know nothing about and that will mean the final outcome as well

I do know new work will be the best outcome

If we knew more about why the decals failed for example then maybe we could help with the new ones? What were the colorants for example, just so many unknowns.

New work new mistakes they say

[Callie Beller Diesel]

I agree with Mark and Kelly about remaking the batch being the least amount of work involved at this point. Best case scenario you save some of them, but you’ll have to remake the ones that blistered in the refire anyways. If you have to remake some, you might as well do the batch properly from the start, with fewer headaches.

@Kelly in AK, Milestone makes decals specifically for cone 6. Their stock decals are kinda fun and they also will custom print larger batches.