Coffe Mugs

[dboblitt]

So I am thinking of making a series of mugs but am a little worried about color or fume on the inside. I was thinking of just starting off with a few simple frit ones and was going to just drop some frit inside the tube. Does anyone have any idea if this could be harmful to ones health in the long run?

[JDeMoss]

I'm always freaked out by fuming or using colors on the inside of drinking glasses (even up on the rim bothers me a little). I have no idea what the effects are, so I'm no real help, but I personally would not fume the inside of anything like that.

[blazeoffire]

I'm always freaked out by fuming or using colors on the inside of drinking glasses (even up on the rim bothers me a little). I have no idea what the effects are, so I'm no real help, but I personally would not fume the inside of anything like that.
THIS BRINGS UP A GOOD POINT IF IT IS NOT DEAMED SAFE FOR A DRINKING GLASS THEN WHY DOES IT SEEM "OK" FOR PIPES? HMM I HAVE WONDERED THIS IN THE PAST .

SORRY FOR ALL CAPS WOOPS

[dboblitt]

kind of why I was asking. I would have thought it wasn't that great in a drinking glass but then was trying to figure out why it would be all right for pipes.

[praspekt]

i've thought about this long before i started blowing glass.. what is the exact chemical reaction that is taking place between the glass and applying fume, then burning the fume in, and working the piece.. what is the chemical composition of the glass once the fume has been added to a piece?

if we're smoking from a piece with fume inside or out, we're applying heat directly to the fume and breathing it in.. if that's ok, then taking hot water and drinking from a fumed piece would seem ok as well..

i'd like to know the science to this, so i can understand a bit better as to what is going on..

[blazeoffire]

i've thought about this long before i started blowing glass.. what is the exact chemical reaction that is taking place between the glass and applying fume, then burning the fume in, and working the piece.. what is the chemical composition of the glass once the fume has been added to a piece?

if we're smoking from a piece with fume inside or out, we're applying heat directly to the fume and breathing it in.. if that's ok, then taking hot water and drinking from a fumed piece would seem ok as well..

i'd like to know the science to this, so i can understand a bit better as to what is going on..
Seems I would have noticed a medical problem by now, having used inside fumed pipes since 96. Maybe thats what my ex was talking about when she said i have changed haha. Hey - fume doesn't just change colors it changes lives hahaha

[somberbear]

you could always do tube incase ments and sandwitch it all in.. if your worried... im not to worried about the colors sence most of it is trapped in a glass matrix the rest is burned off.. then agian if using boro the temp your talking about can change alot of things. so i really dont know but so far i think its pritty good. i have never noticed a taste differnce...

[Nightcat]

I don't know if the silver fume would leak out into the water or whatever, but I'm sure it would do bad things in a microwave. I am not sure about having a coffee cup that you can't put in a microwave.

My uneducated guess would be that there can't be enough silver or gold leaching into the water or smoke to be harmful. Lots of us have gold and silver rings that are in contact with our skin at all times and that doesn't cause a problem. I think if you were fuming with lead or mercury you would have a problem but sliver and gold seem to be much less toxic.

Just my guess......

~Ross~

[~NattyMama~]

hmmmmm.... we have never sold inside-out pieces because I'm unsure of the safety, and I know I've lost TONS of sales because of that, but I don't want to even chance being responsible for someone's kids being born with no eyelids or something!
I don't think inside-out glass has been around long enough for us to really know for sure. I know that I am totally sketched out about fuming anything without serious ventilation goin on, so why would I hold a flame to it and breathe deep? I have definately tasted something funny about a brand new raw fume inside-out piece, but I am also prone to bouts of paranoia... :twitch:

[praspekt]

does anyone know the chemistry behind fume??

[sjwelna]

does anyone know the chemistry behind fume??

All you're really doing is heating up the small amount of metal to vaporize it (put it into gaseous state) and then changing it's oxidation state from the composition of the flame. I'm not exactly sure as to the chemical bonds that keep it in place once it hits/cools on the glass, but I could look into that. I think an MSDS sheet might tell you a little more then I can in terms of health risks for oxidized/reduced silver and gold.

-Steve (the chem major dork)

EDIT: I've looked around on www.msdssearch.com and can't find much on silver ions. From what I've been able to see, silver is a very safe metal (obviously) but I can not comment on the safety of having silver ions/containing compounds (if it bonds with anything in the glass or air) on glass used for consuming food/liquid. Obviously we all know that having heavy metals in your blood is not a good thing.

[LTD]

I have never had problems with any of the mugs I've made, i/o or out. I guess I should say I haven't had any complaints. I tell people to avoid the microwave( I would not own one) Because I am not sure how the marbles would hold up, usually I put a few opals in the handles. I would like any difinitive answers on the health risks in using i/o anything.

[smutboy420]

I can't see why there would be any heath risks from ingesting micrgram amounts of siver or gold. being that neather one is harmfull to humans in larger doses.
its in drinking water in some areas of the world. bath maine has gold in the well water at a rate so hi when you die of old age there is a detectable and recoverable amount of gold in your hair and no ill heath effects. Silver is some thing that has been worked with for 1,00o's of years and there are not to many heath risks with ingesting silver. inless you get hif doese then it turns your skin a grayes color. But thats not a normal ocurance inless you are taking it internaly delibratly. Its not some thing that happens to silver workers. Working in a silver smelting plant lots of siver vaporizez in to the air like I'm talking pounds of it and its not any thing osha worries about. but it is a monitary loss when pounds of silver or gold are floating around in the air. but these guys eat and breath more silver in a week then most glass blowers use in there life time.
Color on the other hand is not always cool because dangerus metals can leatch out. but boro color is much less apt to do it then soft glass will.

[somewhere]

definitely safe. No doubt about it.
BTW: your lighter isn't hot enough to vaporize the silver into a fume state so IO is also safe.

JEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZ IS this the first you thought about it?

[smutboy420]

One tip thats mostly astetic in regards to fume and drinkingware. if you have unburned in fume it washes out with water some times and can look like crap when you have some areas that it comes off and not in others. Gold does it more then silver does but silver can do it to if its not melted in at all.

[Fire on the mountain]

exactly...if its just chillin on the surface youll get some in your system but if its captured in the glass matrix its not coming out until you put it in the flame again.

[schmoinkel]

ive put my mugs in the mic. before.....no problem here.

[somberbear]

if your worried about it... then just incase it all in clear. tube incase all of it..

[LTD]

How do opal act in micro

[eternalfrost]

one word for all you paranoids out there lol

SILVERWARE

if its fine to suck on solid silver forks im sure the microounces in a fumed cup wont kill u.

[LTD]

Has anyone put encased gilson in the microwave?

[yinzer]

silver is the original antibiotic. all other antibiotics were modeled/discovered after silver. we use ionic silver all the time when we get sick here, works great. there are quite a few companies that make natrupathic remedies using silver, so i cant see how much harm can be done. as far as gold, what the hell is the name of that schnapps that has gold flakes in it? goldenschlagger or somerthingcant see, if you burn the fuming in well enough, what the health risks would really be. neither silver or gold are technically considered a heavy metal. id worry more about the other metals in the glass.

[eternalfrost]

Silver may be taken up from the gastro-intestinal tract and the lungs. Some silver compounds may be absorbed through the skin. Silver binds to plasma proteins in the blood. Silver is primarily accumulated in the pancreas, liver and spleen, and to a lesser extent in other tissues. Silver is mainly excreted in the faeces via the bile. Urinary may take place, when the blood level of silver is above a certain concentration.

Metallic silver is highly inert and is generally considered of low toxicity to mammalian species including man. However, death has been observed in rats following ingestion of large doses colloidal silver (15). In rare cases, silver has resulted in skin allergy. Inhalation of high concentrations of silver fume resulted in headache and dyspnoea, and later reduced oxygen pressure in capillary blood. For many years, it was believed that the only effect from silver was argyria. Argyria results after long-term exposure and is a cosmetic illness. Recent studies show, that silver may be toxic to the kidneys. In animal studies, silver was able to pass the blood-brain barrier and accumulate in certain areas of the brain. Such animals were less active than unexposed animals, which may indicate that silver may have a harmful effects on the central nervous system. Silver is not mutagenic or carcinogenic. There is some evidence that silver may cause minor developmental anomalies in the foetus.

Silver ions are lethal to bacteria, and are very toxic aquatic organisms. Algae, daphnia, fresh water mussels, and fathead minnows were all found capable of accumulating silver; but the food chain was not an important route of silver accumulation for animals at higher tropic levels, suggesting no food chain magnification.

[yinzer]

damn...well there ya go!

[Satori]

I love goldschlager! Drinking gold flakes is fun.

[SHOOBS]

Is it me or has nobody heard of outside work. :twitch:

[yinzer]

Is it me or has nobody heard of outside work. :twitch:
whats that??? :crazy: