I am in australia and we now have a swap'n'go system for BBQ bottles in most places, so who knows what is in em or how old the bottle is ..... but I do drain my hose each time I get a new one and seem to get a few drops to half a teaspoon of stinky oily crap, but still find, and have been told by experienced beadmakers over here, that the first bit of a bottle will always give some streaky crap in clears, and over the last 5 or 6 bottles, I find this correct !!! just don't try clear encasing on the first half of a bottle and u may have a bit more luck .. works so far. I still got to turn the HH down even on 2nd half of bottle and work in top of flame to avoid streaks and don't bother trying to encase with moretti clear, have had much more luck with super clear, vetro I think it is, tried and even though it looked amazing, 90% of encasing cracked !!! so using it only for all clear beads with surface decorations and it is really nice ...... good luck and although I have really seriously thought about upgrading to a big girls torch, I just keep my first little HH and love it .............. I think, what would I do differently with a bigger torch, and I think although it would be much quicker, and maybe I could sell more beads u know, time verses money, ra ra ra and all that, but the enjoyment ?????? gee dunno ....... the age old question ..... and the answer is, ? differen strokes for different folkes ????
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