Hot Head : reducing/striking questions

[Veebee]

Hi there you clever peeps 
The questions are:
1. Which part of the HH flame is the best place for reducing?
2. Which part of the HH flame is the best for encouraging glass to strike?
3. Will I ever get Iris Orange 104 (rod) to strike with my HH, and if so, HOW??!!!! ( like, how many times do you heat & cool to get more than just khaki with a couple of brown streaks, how hot should you really get it etc.....)

You guys are soo helpful, I hope you can sort me out!

Ooohh, and I would love to see any piccies of HH Iris Orange success stories!

Thank you!
Edit: I'm using Mapp BTW!

[Rosenquartz]

I'm replying mostly so that I can see what clever answers are suggested for Iris Orange.

I have not been able to get much more than khaki with a couple of streaks despite buring my way through a couple of rods of the stuff on a HH (with MAPP and on bulk Propane). Someone did suggest earlier that they had limited success with 104 iris orange and that 96 version was much more willing to play.

To reduce I think the "tool" or choice is a wrap of kitchen foil around the torch that you can slip up over the holes to block the oxy. But watch your hands - the foil gets hot too - and don't have the bead in the flame when you slip the foil up and down as you might get little flecks of foil or dirt that shoot up the flame and contaminate your bead.

Neil

[Steampunkglass]

I am wondering if you are getting iris orange hot enough with the initial 'melt' then let it cool quite a lot, then it's a case of reheating and touching with tools etc to start getting the effects. It is a tricky one to do though, trial and error (mostly error in my case!) I did get some goodish colours from 104, tended to dab small bits over a larger core bead, I got the colours but then I got cracking problems as well!

[Veebee]

Thank guys!
Dendrobium, did you only let it cool once to get the colour from Iris Orange?
Neil, the thought of moving a piece of foil up and down over the holes scares me!  lol
Any more for any more?

[soulsilver]

Hi There VeeBee, I am on a hothead and have been working with it for about 8 weeks, I use a Jubilee clip that I have wrapped in aluminum foil and I slide that up over the air holes so that I can reduce, it does get hot but its nothing to be scared of, you can always use an oven glove or a pair of pliers to bring it back down again. I have seen pictures of someones set up where they attached a handle to the jubilee clip to move it up and down ( not sure how its attached tho?!)
In order to strike glass (and I might be wrong here, this is just my understanding of it) you let the glow go off the glass and then reintroduce it to the top of the flame and keep turning it there til it only just starts to pick up a slight glow again and then move it out of the flame again.........

From one newbie to another, I hope this helps!

Sally

[Magpie]

I use one of these for covering the holes.
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/coolskin-gauntlets/F/keyword/oven+glove/product/1800_10774
They're pricy, but I work in the kitchen and did originally buy them for the litchen, not torching. And if I cannot be bothered I don't put it on, just wrap it round the torch and squeeze, does the trick.

[Veebee]

Thanks you guys! I guess I'm gonna have to get over my fear and try covering up those holes! Eeek!

[SallyB]

Hi VeeBee

I saw this post from you earlier today and wondered how you were doing with your striking and reducing on your HH.
I just treated myself to a sample pack of Double Helix colours and am wondering how to get the best out of them on my HH.

Be interested to hear how you are doing with yours.

Sally
x

[aoturoa]

I used to use my oven gloves, doubled over.


But talking of these

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/coolskin-gauntlets/F/keyword/oven+glove/product/1800_10774

I seriously need to get myself some of these. I can torch for hours without burning myself but I pull stuff out of the oven and I catch my wrists on the shelves (twice in one week )

[Veebee]

Hi VeeBee

I saw this post from you earlier today and wondered how you were doing with your striking and reducing on your HH.
I just treated myself to a sample pack of Double Helix colours and am wondering how to get the best out of them on my HH.

Be interested to hear how you are doing with yours.

Sally
x

Well, I am getting on just fine with Aurae, am having a brazen love affair with Ekho, am rather in love with Reichenbach black too. I just had a play with Chalcedony rods, I have a feeling I'm not going to be able to work this glass for long enough on Mapp....some of the guys on LE are working for half an hour to get such beautiful colours. I haven't been brave enough to try my single rod of Triton yet. I have actually had some success with Reichenbach Silver Brown too, though I had a really scummy batch of clear so the beads are all pants ( and the rods that gave colour were the quite dark brown, slightly opal-y looking ones). Taji opal frit works great as well!
I am now, right this minute, about to try Reichenbach Multicolour...I have an issue with heat control (as in I'm cr@p at it!), so I tend to overcook Magic, though Magic reduces to the most amazing gold! I'll let you know how I get on! Perhaps we should keep this thread going with our discoveries? 

I used to use my oven gloves, doubled over.


But talking of these

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/coolskin-gauntlets/F/keyword/oven+glove/product/1800_10774

I seriously need to get myself some of these. I can torch for hours without burning myself but I pull stuff out of the oven and I catch my wrists on the shelves (twice in one week )

Ha, you know, I do that too! I've seen those gloves, they look great!

Right then Multicolour... come to Mama!....

[Scubeadoo]

Hi VeeBee

I saw this post from you earlier today and wondered how you were doing with your striking and reducing on your HH.
I just treated myself to a sample pack of Double Helix colours and am wondering how to get the best out of them on my HH.

Be interested to hear how you are doing with yours.

Sally
x

Me too - cannot get mine to do anything much so must be going wrong somewhere!

[Veebee]

Hi Sally,
What are you trying to do?

[SallyB]

Hi VeeBee

I am just trying to get some colours from Double Helix that vaguely might look like the effect on the Tuffnells website although haven't tried massively hard.  I wanted some idea of what I should do before I started using my rods.  I treated myself with some of the money I was saving for a better torch so am keen not to waste the glass making beads in unimpressive colours.

I'm really pleased you've managed to get some good effects from yours.  I fashioned a thing out of silver foil that covers the holes very nicely but am not quite sure what part of the flame to put the bead into or for how long.  Investigations on this led me to your question on here.

I've been so far having a go in the blue part of the flame very near to the actual torch and next time will try much higher up after reading something I can't remember where.

Sally
x

[Veebee]

Yep, to reduce (ie get the metal in the glass to come to the surface and produce a mirror shine) you need to put the bead in the top of the bushy yellow flame. Make sure your foil collar is tight enough to produce this type of flame.
Good luck, let us know how you get on!

While I'm  defining words, I might as well say that my understanding of "Striking" a glass is simply "bringing out the hidden colours in the glass", and the confusing thing is how to do that when different glasses react so .....well differently 

HTH!

[Mand]

Yes, yes Vicki, do show your results with Multicolour asap , I have a HH too and am reluctant to fork out on expensive glass which might not work in my flame!

Excellent thread to start!