100+ year old plate glass Q sort of

rosanna gusler · Post by **rosanna gusler** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 11:44 am

hi all, my blacksmith friend is renovating a 100+year old building for a shop/gallery/whatever. he brought me the old wavey glass from the store front. he wanted me to fuse something up for his mom with it. well i did. (i'm from ohio, i can start a sentence with well and end with a preposition) it turned sort of milky. it looks ok but i was really suprised. i will post pics if these make it through the slump. this is one stiff glass stiffer than regular float by about as much as float is stiffer than be in the kiln.i am going to have to coldwork the edges. hard to cut. anyhow, anybody have an idea about why it went milky? just curious. rosanna

Kevin Midgley · Post by **Kevin Midgley** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 11:57 am

Surface degradation over time. The surface of that old glass, if you were able to get down to the molecular level would look porous where parts of the surface have been literally washed away over time.
The glass, drawn as compared to modern float, is most likely worth more to a stained glass window artist or historian than a fuser. Try and replace that glass if you are doing an historic restoration on a building. Kevin

rosanna gusler · Post by **rosanna gusler** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 1:37 pm

i guess, it looks like it went milky all the way through. if these blanks do not break, i will throw a piece in later just to cut in half. the rest is dumpsterbound. it is really scratched and pitted. what a pain. on the up side, i did come up with a nice design on one that i will use again. rosanna

Brian and Jenny Blanthorn · Tue Nov 25, 2003 6:44 am

rosanna gusler wrote:i guess, it looks like it went milky all the way through. if these blanks do not break, i will throw a piece in later just to cut in half. the rest is dumpsterbound. it is really scratched and pitted. what a pain. on the up side, i did come up with a nice design on one that i will use again. rosanna

Try making bowls from it just slumped

Its probably got stuff in it which is not disolved n this then devitrifies on heating

I am just guessing here

Also if wobbaly will not B plate this term usually refers 2 drawn / rolled glass which is then polished

If big ur glass will B just rolled / drawn

MayB spun or something else if small

Brian

rosanna gusler · Post by **rosanna gusler** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 8:44 am

ok, thanks brian. that makes sense. it does look like it is devit, only in the inside. a milky pale greenish semitransparent sort of color. anyhow i broke up the rest and binned it last night. rosanna

Bev Brandt · Post by **Bev Brandt** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 10:24 am

rosanna gusler wrote:ok, thanks brian. that makes sense. it does look like it is devit, only in the inside. a milky pale greenish semitransparent sort of color. anyhow i broke up the rest and binned it last night. rosanna

It sounds like it might be kind of interesting. A different look, perhaps? Do you have pictures you can post?

I have scads of old window glass dating from the very late 1800s to sheets from my own 1915 home to modern float. My husband re-habs houses and I get the windows. My plan is to fire the stuff as part of my new-fuser training and see what happens. I'm glad you posted your experience.

- Bev

rosanna gusler · Post by **rosanna gusler** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 11:48 am

you might be better off using modern float to learn with. there are so many variables in old glass that you would never be sure why something did or did not work. alot of the learning curve that you will be on involves repeatability. i was suprised at how very different this stuff was in the kiln. not something that i will repeat. rosanna