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Fire Polishing Stained Glass Bowl
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2003 12:52 pm
by Robert Cohen
I know that some, if not all of my questions have answers in the archives. The problem is that I can't find them. So my questions are: 1) Can the edges of a stained glass bowl be fire polished? 2) If so, can Back Magic be used on these edges? 3) With or without Back Magic, can stained glass withstand a 1300 degree polishing temperature? Thanks for your help.
Bob
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2003 1:26 pm
by Brad Walker
If you put a bowl in the kiln and fire to 1300 degrees, the edges will probably get a little shinier. More importantly, the bowl will almost certainly distort and lose its shape.
Fire polishing generally takes place at 1300 to 1400 degrees, depending on the type of glass and the kiln. Slumping, where the glass is pliable enough to change shape, takes place at 1150 to 1250, more or less. That's why people fire polish before slumping to take on the bowl shape.
As for Back Magic, it has the advantage of only having to be fired to around 1000 to 1100F (they say 975, but I've always had to fire a little hotter than that), so you don't distort the shape of the bowl. Unfortunately, Back Magic doesn't leave a nice shine; it leaves a dull sheen (which looks ok for some purposes, but isn't the shine that most people think of when they think of shiny glass).