HELP! stability of annealing process question!
 

Hello y'all:

Im trying to make small glass chunks for jewelry. Basically extra extra large frit. Ive tried soft glass and boro, and I finally got a process down to give me the right sized pieces in boro.

Now that I have chunks, I want to set them into jewelry.

My process involves a water quench, and in many of my chunks I see fractures. Im worried that the chunks will fail after being put into a piece of jewelry. I flame polished a few, and am getting ready to anneal. If they survive the annealing process, do you think im ok? If not, can something be done?

Thanks,

TA

You're thermal shocking the glass when you quench them. I wouldn't trust the chunks if you're not melting them onto something.

To answer your question specifically; no I don't think you are ok even after annealing these chunks that have cracks in them.


The cracks indicate where the internal stress was enough to break the bonds of the glass structure. That fracture line is going to be a weak point and the place where future cracking will start to grow.

I am afraid the kind of chunkiness you want would be better achieved by roughly shaping molten glass to an approximate form you want and then annealing it to room temperature and follow that with cold working with grinding and polishing.