The porcelain is harder, but the terra cotta has it beat for thermal shock!

Saturday 5th September 2015

This terra cotta cup (center) is glazed with G2931G clear glaze (insight-live.com/material/1660">Ulexite based) and fired at cone 03. It survives 30 seconds under direct flame against the sidewall and turns red-hot before a fracture occurs (the unglazed one also survived 30 seconds, it only cracked, it did not fracture). The porcelain mug (Plainsman M370) is glazed with G2926B clear, it survived 15 seconds (even though it is much thinner). The porcelain is much more dense and durable, but the porous nature of the earthenware clearly withstands thermal shock much better. It is actually surprisingly durable.

Pages that reference this post in the Digitalfire Reference Library:

TSFL Thermal Shock Failure, Terra Cotta, Thermal shock, Flameware, Earthenware

This post is one of thousands found in the Digitalfire Reference Database. Most are part of a timeline maintained by Tony Hansen. You can search that timeline on the home page of digitalfire.com.