Two glazes. One crawls, the other does not. Why?

Wednesday 25th July 2012

The glaze on the right is crawling at the inside corner. Why? Multiple factors contribute. The angle between the wall and base is sharper. A thicker layer of glaze has collected there (the thicker it is the more power it has to impose a crack as it shrinks during drying). It also shrinks more during drying because it has a higher water content. But the leading cause: Its high raw clay content increases drying shrinkage. Calcining part of the raw clay destroys its affinity for water (which is what makes it plastic), this is an effective way to deal with this. Or doing a little chemistry to source some of the Al2O3 from materials other than clay (e.g. a insight-live.com/glossary/43">frit having a higher Al2O3 content).

Pages that reference this post in the Digitalfire Reference Library:

Digitalfire Tech Tips PDF Handouts, Calcination, Suspension, Crawling

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