Dirt or Brown Fuzz Junk on White Moretti

[samarambula]

I haven't been torching in about three months. I cleaned three rods of white with alcohol and then when I started to use them it was like a brown film started to form and stayed on the glass. It has contaminated most of the whites dots I placed on some beads but I can't think of what caused it besides the alcohol I used to clean the rods. Is this a common reaction? It didn't happen with any other colors. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
-Sam

[kbinkster]

I have cleaned rods with alcohol in the past, but have never had a reaction like that. Alcohol evaporates, so there should not be anything left behind. How long after you cleaned them did you use them?

What did you wipe the rods with? Could the rods have had lint on them after cleaning?

Are you certain this isn't reduction? I have had white rods grow a brown flim on them when I had a reducing flame. It went away when I hit it with an oxidizing flame. White is sensitive to reduction, afterall.

[samarambula]

Definitely no lint but you may be right about the reducing flame. I worked in the top part of the flame and fiddled witht he mix but kept getting the same reaction. I'm going to play around with it again tonight.

Thanks Kb, I'll try to post a pic in a few minutes.

[samarambula]

Here is a pic of the rods in question:
26720

[kbinkster]

It looks like you're running a propane-rich flame. What do your candles look like?

[samarambula]

Honestly I don't remember. A propane rich flame would look like???

If you tell me I'll be more careful to watch out for that. I really appreciate your help. I've only torched a handful of times in the year I've been doing this so any amount of time off is like starting all over.

[kbinkster]

Oh, I know what you mean about starting over after being away from it. That happens to one degree or another no matter how long you've been at it.

Basically, you want a neutral flame for general glass working. It is also the hottest type of flame. On a neutral flame, your candles (those little jets) should be from 1/4" long (about the width of a rod of glass) to 3/8" long. The yellow/white tips on the ends should be very small, just barely there. The shorter your candles, the less yellow/white tips you want. For a 1/4" candle, you will want no more than just a speck of a yellow/white tip.

Now, if you are running too much propane or not enough oxygen, your flame will be propane-rich. The yellow/white tips on the candles will be more pronounced. The more propane-rich (oxygen-poor), the longer the yellow/white part of the candles will be. This flame can be very useful for certain applications like reducing frit and fuming silver.

If you want an oxidizing flame, you just increase the oxygen until there are no yellow/white tips at all on those candles. The torch may hiss a little and there can be a few clear spots in the flame. This is a cooler flame than a neutral flame, but is very useful when working colors that are sensitive to reducing and when fuming gold.

I hope this helps!

[samarambula]

Yes this helps a lot. I'll play around with it. Thankssssss

[kbinkster]

:) I'm glad I could help!

[dogsrlove]

Anise White?

Vanessa

[Curly Irish Girl]

Pop -pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!!!! Damned stuff!

Anise White?

Vanessa