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Let's just say that a friend handles a piece a little clumsily and an edge breaks off. How high does it have to be re-fired to totally erase the join? Or is that even possible?

Hi Cheryl,
I had the same thing happen at a show last year. Someone banged one piece against another and took a 1/2" cllamshell off the edge of it. It was actually the pumpkin and green piece in the warmglass gallery. Anyway, I slumped it back flat, glued the chip back in place and refired to regular full fuse temp (1450) in a dam. Then had to re-bevel the edges and reslump. It was a lot of work, but I can no longer find the area where the chip was. The chip was in BE transparent spring green. Another time, I knocked a corner off while sandblasting and was able to refire the same way (dammed) with multicolor BE opaques, so it's definitely worth a try.

I usually go at least ten degrees hotter than the initial fuse. This is a generalization, and depending on the situation it may be much hotter than that. Sometimes it works, and when it doesn't it is usually because the "healing" left a scar. I've got two patients in the kiln right now that have had this thermal cosmetic surgery. They will either finish their convalescence in the dumpster or on a shelf.