Chinese Clear Boro
 

Has anyone tried the clear chinese boro? I was just wondering what they thought of it and if they had any problems?

well its not as clear as say schott, but its okay. sometimes has little bubbles. depends on what you are doing with it. Its fine for student use I'd say. Its even okay for use under opaques. But if you want a great encasement its not what you are looking for. Had no problems with it, but is a case of you get what you pay for, and in this case thats not a crystal clear bubble free glass.

It works fine. Doesn't fume well, but other than that it's fine.

Thanks guys. I've only been playing with boro for a couple months now (I took a class with Brent in March) so I was thinking about getting some to expertment with.

I haven't even begun to think about fuming yet. I only have a little bit of silver and don't want to waste it.

You'll probably like it well enough. I do. But I also buy better stuff for encasing. If you've worked soft glass its about as clear as the old vetro clear. Not perfect definitely not wonderful- but its good enough for most of what I do. ;)

I bought some in 8mm rod.. It works well.. but has scratches and such.. so not great for clear work.. but the price is nice!!

There are a few different manufacturers of clear boro over in China. To differentiate it, best to say which supplier you are purchasing it from over here (ABR, Glasscraft, etc...)

i had the same issue with 12mm chinese (from abr) so i pickled it. most of the scratches and scuffs came off.

I like the chinese colors but the clear not so much... It's okay for practice

I like using it for scraping rods or encasing tubing sometimes but mainly scraping and practice. Likes to crack really easy though.

I was talking with Chris (baggedchevys) the other day in the phone about this and asking him what to do with all my china rod his reply"use it as puntys temp bridges or handles and consumable trash, theres no point in trying to make something nice from a pile of crap" he was telling me that when you are learning you want to give yourself every chance you can for success. "China rod can be shocky out of tolerance in the coe have soft or hard spots most likely scratched and will boil easily. All things a newbie to boro wont know how to combat or why its doing what it is. Theres a reason its cheap and its because it aint worth a damn". I am going to play in his a lukes shop tomorrow and will ask for more input on this.

Hey tell Chris to post some pics of the mothership on FB or something! That video was insane!

That tube bit the big one while at the show in Madison they are going to salvage the top half and put a smaller bottom on it. Him and luke are going to be assembling some rather large stuff in the next week and it will all be filmed with pics. Chris said the mothership was put together 6 hours before luke left for the show and after the mishap at the show and the $300+ in shipping to get t there its a sore subject and thats why there is a lack of pics. I will see if he will let me take some pics of it when im over there. If any of you ever get the chance to go to their shop do so its insane the crap they come up with!

Shit you are kidding right? Damn that was an awesome piece of glass work!

I agree with this 100%. There is no reason to learn on substandard glass that explodes for no real reason.

I've had some people tell me they want to learn with a more challenging material so when they use real glass, they'll know how to treat it well. No.

My experience with Chinese clear goes like, I pick up half a tube of 60 mm. Heat the end, it cracks. Heat beyond the crack in such a way that a normal tube would stop cracking. It cracks more. The end falls off. Repeat this until the entire thing is a pile of broken glass on the table in front of me. Would this EVER happen with Simax, Schott or Kimax? NO. So much for saving money. My advice is to definitely not waste your time, and not give the manufacturers of this awful crap your money, either. Buy real glass.

Direct quote from chris today " sure you may save 50% in cost on the front end but when you lose 60% of the material in one form or another in the end any mathmagician can tell you this is a no go"