Talk to me about Gaffer and fernace glass

[Pam]

So if you haven't guessed I've been reading Val Cox's book on frit.
Now what I want to know is other that the lovely lady herself where can we get glass such a Gaffer  and other 96CoE glass - in the uk?
More to the point has anyone else used anything other than 104CoE or 90CoE glass as their "main " glass palette?

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

Beadysam does all the gaffer frits and they are just gorgeous

[Pam]

Thanks Tan but I was thinking about glass rods of 96CoE especially clear. I love Sams frits and I  use the 5% rule but I was wondering about using it in greater proportions and whether anyone else had gone down this route.

[mariag]

Hi Pam I spoke with Gaffer last year & at that time they weren't selling rods in the UK.
Might be worth contacting them though as this may have changed.      www.gafferglass.co.uk

They said I could go & have a look around as they are based just down the road from me in Portsmouth.....I still haven't been down Must sort it out.

[Chameleon]

we have gaffer in our furnace at uni so i have pulled my own "cane" from our furnace (technically from a glass blowers point of view what we use for lampwork is cane - rods are the 1" thick foot long blocks of colour that is used for blowing  )

No promises but I might have a couple of rods of clear about i could send you ? if not i could potentially get you some in jan when im back at uni

[beadysam]

Gaffer have no plans to sell lampworking cane in the UK unfortunately.  I do have some bundles of Reichenbach furnace glass in assorted colours if you are interested?  I think Martin will probably have some too. No clear though .  All my frits are furnace glass - thats why the colours are so much more intense than colours in 104coe.  They all look dark and miserable, with really dark blues, greens etc but when you use them you can see the reason for the dark colours is that they are absolutely saturated with intense colour - thats why you don't need to use very much frit!

[Pat from Canvey]

Most Spectrum sheet glass is 96 COE as is their fusing glass. All you need do is cut it into 1/4 inch strips and use just as you would a rod. If you cut glass well, there is no danger of cutting yourself and I find that the strips make it easier to make some shapes of beads. I'm still using up glass left over from making stained glass windows. The waterglass especially has some great transparents.
<a href="http://www.spectrumglass.com/stained-glass/products/product-search.asp">Spectrum Products

[Chameleon]

Uroboros System 96 do make rods http://www.system96.com/Pages/Rods.html which when i have used them to make inclusions for sandcasting have been compatible with gaffer