Recipes from John Britt's "The Complete Guide To Mid-Range Glazes", now in Insight-Live

[Lawrence Weathers]

John Britt has graciously allowed Tony Hansen, creator of Insight, to add the recipes from his book, "The Complete Guide To Mid-Range Glazes", into Inside-Live. 

 

It is still important to buy John's book because it offers far more than just glaze recipes. It's an outstanding book that provides a wealth knowledge about glaze chemistry.

[Lawrence Weathers]

Here is how to find John's recipes in Insight Live

1. Click "advanced search"
2. Click the "Reference Batch" down arrow.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the list where you will find "John Brit Book -4". Select that option 
4. Click the "search" button and recipes will appear below.
5. Enter a keyword  such as "crawl"  into the search box to narrow the search and again click "search". 
6. Select the one you want and  the recipe will appear to the right, 

 If you have any pictures of the glazes on tiles or pots, send them to Hansen or me so that he can add them to Insight-Live

[Norm Stuart]

Although I bought John Britt's book, this is a more convenient way to find each recipe.

A number of the recipes in this collection already appear in our recipes with photos.

Lawrence Weathers said:

Here is how to find John's recipes in Insight Live

1. Click "advanced search"
2. Click the "Reference Batch" down arrow.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the list where you will find "John Brit Book -4". Select that option 
4. Click the "search" button and recipes will appear below.
5. Enter a keyword  such as "crawl"  into the search box to narrow the search and again click "search". 
6. Select the one you want and  the recipe will appear to the right, 

 If you have any pictures of the glazes on tiles or pots, send them to Hansen or me so that he can add them to Insight-Live

[Rodney Allen Roe]

Where can I find information about Insight?  I have another program, the one from one of the authors of MC6 that I don't do much with but store glaze recipes.  I guess I need more information about using the unity formulas and how to intelligently use any program.

[Lawrence Weathers]

you an find it here https://insight-live.com

[Norm Stuart]

Rodney - You can download the Insight User Manual here: Insight Users Manual

If this link doesn't work, as a member of Cone6Pots you can join the Insight-Live Users Group and use the Insight program and Insight-Live glaze database for free.

I just sent you an email invitation to join the group. 

If anyone else wants to join the Insight-Live Group ask George Lewter or myself and I'll send you an invitation to join.

After you are provided with your Group Sign-in and Password, use it here  https://insight-live.com/

You can then download the Insight User Manual and the optional Desktop program under "Our Files"

Rodney Allen Roe said:

Where can I find information about Insight?  I have another program, the one from one of the authors of MC6 that I don't do much with but store glaze recipes.  I guess I need more information about using the unity formulas and how to intelligently use any program.

[Norm Stuart]

All popular glaze software use the Seger Unity Formula developed in the late 1880s by a chemist who worked for KPM Berlin (Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur), Herman August Seger. 

Hermann Seger died at the age of 53 in 1893.

The factory could only estimate the temperature of a kiln by the radiant color which resulted in firing problems. In response Hermann Seger developed pyrometric cones (Segerkegels) from kaolin, sand, feldspar and marble powder mixtures.  The American Orton and English Staffordshire cones are similar but use a different numbering system than Seger Cones.

KPM, the Royal Porcelain Factory, which was founded in 1768 by Frederick the Great of Prussia still makes procelain today using Seger Soft-Paste porcelain: https://en-de.kpm-berlin.com/

This link is a short explanation of the Seger Unity Formula, and there are many others to choose from, including a chapter in "Mastering Cone 6 Glazes".

 

With a background in chemistry you will find the Seger Unity Formula archaic, which it is — being more than 125 years old.

Everyone will find these sort of models poorly predicting real glaze properties like thermal expansion COE.  Yet every glaze program uses this as their logic with their own modifications for known problems. As a result different glaze programs will calculate different results and it's not clear to me that one is always superior to another.

As Digitalfire notes in their Frequently Asked Questions about Insight

*********************************************************************************

I have glazes with very different COE expansions and they both fit the same clay body.  Why?

Expansion calculations are not absolute, they are relative within a system (material or oxide). For example, if you have a dolomite, whiting, feldspar, kaolin, silica glaze and you try a bunch of minor variations, the calculated expansions will give you a fairly accurate indication of which variations have higher and lower expansions and to what degree. But if you make a major change to the oxide balance (perhaps moving toward a high MgO from a high KNaO content) while still using the same materials, the calculated thermal expansion difference between the two will often not accurately reflect the actual measured differences. Even more significantly, if lithium carbonate, for example, is introduced (or a boron frit, or zinc, for example) it is now a different system and different factors affecting the proximity of calculated and actual thermal expansion come into play.

Likely you are employing many systems (which most people are) so there is good reason to think in relative terms. If a glaze is crazing, for example, reduce its thermal expansion and test rather than worrying so much about how much its expansion matches an arbitrary absolute target. Often the degree to which a calculated expansion changes when you adjust the recipe is comparable to the degree to which the actual measured numbers would be different (within a system).

There are other factors that affect the accuracy of thermal expansion prediction also:-Some oxides, like Li2O do not impose their expansions in a linear fashion or in accordance with their proportion. -The degree to which a glaze is completely melted determines the degree to which its expansion calculation is valid.

- Crystallization: A melt that freezes to a crystalline solid has a very different thermal expansion than when it freezes to a glass.

- Non melting particles: Zircon imposes its expansion as a non-participant in the glass structure, this is very different than if it were to melt and participate in the glass chemistry. Alumina (calcined or hydrate) is a similar story.

- Oxides interact: The expansion contribution of one may be different depending on which other oxides are present.

*********************************************************************************

Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur - Charlottenburg District of Berlin, Wegelystraße 1, 10623

Google view of KPM in Berlin

Rodney Allen Roe said:

Where can I find information about Insight?  I have another program, the one from one of the authors of MC6 that I don't do much with but store glaze recipes.  I guess I need more information about using the unity formulas and how to intelligently use any program.