Float Safety?

GatorGirl · Post by **GatorGirl** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 12:23 pm

Safety Experts Anyone?
IÂ´m just curious if float glass truely is safe to eat off of? Or who to contact to find out? IÂ´ve looked in the archives and there seem to be those who say itÂ´s safe and others who say beware. I know that BE clear is lead free and safe to eat off of...or so IÂ´ve been told. Is float that different? .

Thanks,
Kim

Bert Weiss · Post by **Bert Weiss** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 12:56 pm

Regular float glass is safe to eat off. The crystal clear and tinted floats are also good. I don't know about lowE...

GatorGirl · Post by **GatorGirl** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 1:37 pm

Thanks Bert. I thought so. I e-mailed Ferro about sandwiching some of their food safe enamels between float glass and the man I e-mailed panicked! He panicked so I panicked.

Bert Weiss · Post by **Bert Weiss** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 3:44 pm

GatorGirl wrote:Thanks Bert. I thought so. I e-mailed Ferro about sandwiching some of their food safe enamels between float glass and the man I e-mailed panicked! He panicked so I panicked.

Sandwiching is tricky. My technique is to prefire the enamels. I recently heard about a technique of mixing the enamel with methyl cellulose medium (Klyr Fire) and not prefiring. I haven't tried this yet, myself.

When you talk to Ferro, you might be interested in their china paints as well as glass enamels. In Germany you can get the transparent glass colors that are not available to us in the USA. They might work very well sandwiched. Different colors will behave differently. They are probably lead bearing, but once they are sandwiched, there are no more problems. I wish we could get these colors. They are fabulous looking. Be sure to put both air sides of the float glass in contact with the enamels. I would not fire hotter than 1420ÂºF to fuse the layers together. Soak for an hour somewhere around 1100 - 1220ÂºF on the ramp up.

GatorGirl · Post by **GatorGirl** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 4:31 am

Thanks Bert for all of the info. Do you know why they donÂ´t sell the transparents to the US? I plan on visiting Frankfurt in a few weeks I guess I could ask them then. I guess that is where their main headquarters are. (By the way I loved your table top that you made by sand casting... using a jar lid for the texture!)

Kim