Boron Nitride Products

[jesnbec73]

It's been a couple decades since I've done any castings, wife is keen on trying it out though so I've been browsing. My experience with casting is pretty limited and I had more than a few nightmare experiences with the old school mold releases, the worse of which was some kind of blue stuff you mixed and brushed on, none of my molds survived that crap even if I let it dry for weeks ahead of time, stuck like glue every firing... Anyways, it looks like there's a new product, new to me anyways, and I was going to get my wife some of it but there's more than a few versions of it and I wasn't sure which one to get. What's the difference between the aerosol sprays, the powder forms, there's some that were water based and some that said absolutely not to add water, pure Boron Nitride Chemical, brush on or spray applications etc. What's the difference, if any, in how these perform?

I also noticed a huge price difference in brands, one is well over a hundred bucks for a spray can while another brand is like fifty bucks for two cans of it? Is there a difference in quality or is that just a brand thing? Any information would be awesome, I know this is a lampwork forum, but I'm sure some of you guys have done some casting. If I had known about this Boron Nitride stuff back in the day I might have had a decent collection of molds by now LOL

[Three Muses Glass]

I've used the spray on stainless steel slump molds but not on ceramic molds. It worked ok but scratched easily. I used Hotline Primo for the smaller casting/frit molds.
Not sure why, or don't remember why, I didn't try it on ceramic. Something about it hard to switch back to primer? Maybe? Or maybe it was the cost. Primer is cheap and Primo is easy to clean up and prime again.

Slumpy's has the spray for a bit less than $30.
https://www.slumpys.com/Warm-Glass-S....3999938964844

[jesnbec73]

There was also something about temperature, lower temps like slumping used one or the other and higher temps used the other one? I'd hate to use it and end up having to use it exclusively if you can't switch back to kiln wash. I want to try to make her first firings pleasant, I had a horrible experience with it.

[kevingreenbmx]

My understanding is that once you have used a mold or form with Boron Nitride, you must always use boron nitride with it. Admittedly, I'm not sure why, I don't know what happens if you try to switch.