Jewelry kilns Pendants & Devit

[tom suter]

A friend of mine got a paragon front loading jewelry kiln 7" x 7" inside that you can do a full fuse in 15 min., so they say. He has been doing pendants BE glass and Dichroic he fires at 1000 dph to 1600. On his pendants he has been getting gray on the edges I guess its devit. He has done bracelets blanks 1" by 5 1/2" and uses the same firing schedule and does not seem to get the graying or when he fires in his bigger kiln using the more conservative schedule and no problem. I have got on him about cleaning the edges better after grinding. He just runs water and wipes them off with a paper towel. It does not appear to be on the top layer of the pendants just the sides. Does this sound like a grinding problem, devit, or firing just to fast. Thanks for any help. I got a small kiln myself that I probably use myself in a couple of weeks when I get caught up. Tom

[Barbara Muth]

sounds like a grinding problem to me.


Cleanliness is next to godliness.

Barbara

[Paul Tarlow]

Is he firing on kiln wash or fiber paper?

If fiber paper there's lots in the archives about problems firing ground edges on top of it.

- Paul

[Kitty]

i agree with the others' opinions. sounds like a dirty edge from grinding to me. the temps are probably OK. i usually give a cold kiln about 20 or 30 min to heat up to 500F and evaporate any Klyr Fire, then i go AFAP to 1500 or by whatever looks right, somewhere around 1500+. i never get edge problems. am firing on BE kilnwash, with BE glass, some of which has dichro coating.

why is he grinding? why not cutting pieces in regular manner?

[tom suter]

Paul, he is firing on the shelf with kiln wash. I have been aftering him to spend more time cleaning his edges. I never have done pendants and on a small table top kiln so I wasnt sure myself. I spend quite a bit time cleaning my edges so I wasn't sure what it was from. Do any of you use borax on the pendants? Tom Thanks for the reply

[Barbara Muth]

Do any of you use borax on the pendants? Tom Thanks for the reply

Tom, I don't. I fuse big blanks with fiber paper, cut in the tile saw, dump in water immediately, rinse and scrub, back into clean water. Take them out of the water and ry them with a clean cloth just before firing on kiln washed shelf. No hazing on the edges for me.

Barbara

[dee]

A friend of mine got a paragon front loading jewelry kiln 7" x 7" inside that you can do a full fuse in 15 min., so they say. He has been doing pendants BE glass and Dichroic he fires at 1000 dph to 1600. On his pendants he has been getting gray on the edges I guess its devit. He has done bracelets blanks 1" by 5 1/2" and uses the same firing schedule and does not seem to get the graying or when he fires in his bigger kiln using the more conservative schedule and no problem. I have got on him about cleaning the edges better after grinding. He just runs water and wipes them off with a paper towel. It does not appear to be on the top layer of the pendants just the sides. Does this sound like a grinding problem, devit, or firing just to fast. Thanks for any help. I got a small kiln myself that I probably use myself in a couple of weeks when I get caught up. Tom

having had scum on ground edges even when rinsed and scrubbed sounds too familiar - what i have resorted to is using the hand held diamond pads 220 grit to remove grinding crud...