Comparing clear glass
 

Im in the midst of transitioning from soft to hard glass.

Some friends and I are planning to pay a pallette of 33 coe clear together in order to get the cost down.

We want German glass and are debating Simix vs Schott. The or pricing is way better on the Schott but I have had a few people tell me that Simix is better quality.

Any opinions regarding the comparison?

Ideally I'd like to save the money and go with Schott, but not if the glass is going to be less satisfactory to work with...

Thanks for the help!

From what I understand different brands of glass can make the color strike differently. I think simax uses calcium in their glass formula and others don't. Do a search somebody at some point did a test and posted pics comparing the different brands and how they strike the colors.

Simax or Kimble for fume or silver colors. Pyrex is ok too. Depending on what you want to do, Schott is last... here's a bit more info.

http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29071

Most of this info is also available here on LE if you do a search.

I haven't really done enough work with the different clears to give an opinion one way or another but I know other on the forum have and hopefully they will give their vote.

I havent used Schott yet...For what its worth, I have used Simax, Kimble, and Pyrex (corning). As far as straight consistency, quality, and clarity I prefer Simax hands down out of the three. Not even close. Unfortunately I find Kimble is the best for gold and silver fume but it has the least consistency and has the most defects such as deep scratches and bubbles. Kimble fume is great but I end up throwing out 1/3 or so of each rod cutting out defects. If you have only used soft glass till now I suspect any of these will be worlds above the soft in clarity.

Simax is by far the best. If you guys are in Mesa, you can order the pallet out of our Phoenix warehouse. Pick it up with a truck, and no shipping cost. Just a $25 pick up fee. Lots of people take advantage of it out there.

Thanks, Dave. That was my original plan but I got side-tracked by how much cheaper the Schott glass was - even with the freight added it was about half the price of the Simax.

However, I talked with the rest of the group who wants to do the bulk buy with me and we all prefer Simax. And I talked with Russ in Tucson (while buying up all kinds of good stuff there) and he said to give him a call to see what you guys can do on the price if we buy a bunch. I'm planning to do so tomorrow...

BTW, I am told that Simax also makes an "artistic" line called Boro33 that is basically the same glass, but with slightly looser tolerances. Is this true? Is it actually significantly cheaper? And do you sell it as well?

Erik

The Boro 33 is questionable at best, but does, or did exist. We never picked any up, as we weren't impressed with the quality. There were containers of it coming in, but I'm not sure that anyone still sells it. We passed on it anyway.

Sounds like Simax seconds? Might as well buy Kimble since it fumes so nicely :)

This is interesting...I'm still very new to Boro, and trying to keep it all together. But I didn't know this stuff! I'll definitely keep this in mind as we order more glass.

A lot has changed since this was first posted lol

depends for me on what I am doing.

for some things even the cheap Chinese is fine. especially practice on something new and difficult.

Yea I made a 2.4 inch clear boro marble to test some out. It works real good.