Quick Repair Questions

[sacredhaze]

I noticed a small scratch on the mouthpiece of a finished and annealed piece.

I was just wondering if I could bring the whole thing up to temperature in the kiln slowy, then be quick about trying to polish it out with a small flame.

It isn't kiln dust or devit just a scratch.

Also a bubbler has a small spot of devit on the mouth piece stem near the weld. Could I do the same with it by bringing it up to temperature then quickly reheating the area with a small oxy flame ? The can has some encased opals and has been fully annealed.

[Forche]

You can get vit out most of the time that way, and it kinda depends on the scratch. You might be able to flame polish, but if it's scratched too bad it will boil when you try to make her pretty.

[sacredhaze]

Yeah, I'm not so worried about the devit. The scratch is very small not deep. Flame polishing uses a very propane flame ? Like when you turn down the green nob turn up the blue nob then crank the propane for a flame thrower effect right? Or is that an annealing flame ?

[Forche]

yes and yes, you might need to turn the ox up a touch from the annealing flame if you can't get it out at first.

[Swampy]

I've had to do that a couple of times on pieces that got scratched either from moving round in the kiln or scraping on the counter top or display case.

What I did was bring just the mouthpiece area up to temp far out in a very big bushy flame. Take plenty of time to get a good coating of soot over the area.

Put more O2 on and gradually get the soot to glow red, about this temp the glass is above the lower critical point, like about the same temp as your bottom end of the annealing ramp you set on your kiln annealing schedule.

Then put more O2 on and the soot will begin to disappear, this is about the same temp as the upper critical point and shortly after this point the glass will start to change into a plastic state.

Ideally, you will have a 3a/b and you can turn back the O2 on your big torch to just keep the job warm.

You can now get in there with your tiny flame and heal up the area you want.

When you've finished, take your time to reduce the O2 until you get to the same big bushy flame you started off with. When you've got a good layer of soot on the job that means it's reached the lower critical point and you can put the whole job between two sheets of ceramic fibre blanket on your bench.

After a while when it's cold again you can put the job back in the kiln and anneal it again just to be on the safe side.

That's how I do it, if any alchemists know different by all means correct me.

[sacredhaze]

Thanks Swampy!

Repairs completed without a problem!

I will see the finished product tomorrow.

However, after making some I/O frit spoons today, I will have another couple questions regarding Blue Moon powder and color varation also blank sizes.

Damn, wasps were out today so I killed 4 little nests, must have been the Wu-Tang Clan music I was playing!