Minimum temp for annealing/schedule?

[sparrow]

Lovely, lovely peeps, I hope somebody can help. I bought the most fantastic glass from Germany - it's a new series from Reichenbach - I'm so glad I didn't recommend it on here, because........................

...........every single bead I make with it kiln-strikes to a nasty mucky brown. When I checked this with the supplier, she tells me that none of her beads (including those shown with the rods when you buy them) are annealed (!!!). I know in Germany, there are fervent discussions for and against annealing, and it looks like this vendor doesn't think it's necessary. I don't want to enter the discussion, I just want to anneal my beads and keep the colour. I'm working with Q's pre-programmed kiln, so I'm working at 500 degrees, ramping up to 520 for annealing....so frustrated, the glass isn't that easy to tickle reactions out of anyway, and once I got there, I wasted two rods (one kiln load).....and it costs about the same as DL - it has a high silver content, if that helps, but is COE 104.

[Shirley]

Have you tried posting this on LE? It might get picked up by someone who has used the glass.

[Billie]

Can you email Reichenbach for advice..?

Maybe you need to adjust the hold time rather than temp?

[garishglobes]

Are these the new 104COE Reichenbach colours? If they are, Martin Tuffnell sells them too, so might be able to help?

[sparrow]

Thanks both

Shirley, at the moment there is only one vendor of the glass, in Germany, and it only went on the market a month or so back. She developed it jointly with Reichenbach, and there's a thread on the German forum where there's only one other bead using the glass - also unannealed. Looks like I'll be contacting Reichenbach   - super sleuth no.2 in 24 hours - look at me  

Oops, overlap........no, these are different, unfortunately - looks like the vendor has a special deal going with Reichenbach.....

[garishglobes]

no, these are different, unfortunately - looks like the vendor has a special deal going with Reichenbach

Mmm, very special....

[Billie]

I know my FIL and SIL swear you only need to flame anneal and that annealing in a kiln is something dreamed up by kiln manufacturers.... although funny how I'm now batch annealing beads in my kiln... 

[Mary]

You don't need to be so high if you do a longer soak. And 520 is only really necessary if you're using Lauscha, a lot of people successfully dropped their temps to stop Terra overstriking. Try an hour at 500 before ramping down.

[julieHB]

Hi Sabine, sorry to hear about your troubles - I find that even "normal" silvered glass sometimes reacts in the kiln.

Anyway, there is no reason why you should not use a lower annealing temperature.  The 520 deg C is chosen as a middle in the annealing range between the strain point of about 400 deg C and the maximum annealing temperature (600 something deg C for 104 glass).  A much recommended annealing temperature is also 940 deg F (approx. 505 deg C).  For Moretti glass the conservative soak time is 30-45 min/inch, so to hold it for an hour before cooling down slowly to strain point should be ample.  Basically, you can choose to anneal at a lower temperature in the annealing range as long as you soak it longer (I wouldn't recommend to anneal it at 420 deg C, as you would have to leave it in there for a veery long time....).  You may find something of interest here:

http://www.glass-fusing-made-easy.com/annealing.html

I don't know if there were any difference in your beads, i.e. had the beads that stayed for a longer time reacted more? If yes it might be an idea to batch anneal instead, to make sure the beads gets as short time in the kiln as possible.

Ah, I see Mary has posted as i wrote....she has said the same in a much shorter and easier way 

[sparrow]

Wow, thanks ladies.....yes, they do soak a long, long time at 500, sometimes 8-10 hours  Thanks to your fab tips, I'd better get used to programming my kiln myself, rather than relying on the pre-programmed bits  I'll report back!!!

[Mary]

If you have it programmed for a long soak to garage, you can skip to the next stage by pressing "higher" twice, assuming it's a Paragon. Or save the temperamental ones for the end of the day?

[julieHB]

For those with a paragon kiln and who are a little nervous of programming, here's a video tutorial:

https://www.cooltools.us/Articles.asp?ID=150

[sparrow]

Thanks both I can skip to the next step and add hold time, that's about it so far, but I'm not technoligically challenged by nature, so I'm sure once I sit down with it (especially with a video toot ), I'll figure it out. I might just make a couple and send them through batch anneal to see what they do Thanks again for all your help!!!!