Hi Debbie, I use the old Thompson leaded enamels all the time and they fire *beautifully* on top of an unleaded white base. I don't know if this will help you determine if they are leaded or not, but it will ensure good results. You could fire a white leaded base and try over that as well .... because if the top enamels break apart, you'll know you're firing unleaded over leaded. Also, PLEASE let me know if you wish to sell any of your new booty. (dianawieler@sympatico.ca) I love these enamels and am always happy to add to my stock. Cheers, Diana

Diana:

Thanks so much for the reply letting me know what to look for. I'll try all of the unknowns on a white leaded base and see what happens. Many of the "Fire Brite" enamels have the same name as the old Thompson enamels; Chinese Red, Sapphire Blue, Cocoa, etc., but different numbers. I wondered if they are just repackaged Thompsons.

I'll keep you in mind, but right now I'm like a kid in a candy store! I haven't been able to afford to buy enamels like this and am excited about working with them again. I have a 60+ year old Amaco kiln which I relined and put new coils in so I have a pristine kiln to work with that's dedicated to enamels only. I was waiting this morning to see if anyone replied before starting to play with them all.

I'm so glad to have found this forum, I fell in love with enameling at the age of 8-9 and have finally amassed the tools and materials to be able to do this at home. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Thanks again!

Debbie

For any that may be interested and for future reference, I've done test strips with about 17 of the old "Fire Brite" enamels on a base of Thompson 1000 background white and 11 of them appear to be lead-free, based on the breakthrough. These enamels look like they're from the 60's or 70's, and I would have bet that they had lead; lucky I didn't bet on it on a piece I cared about.

Thanks for your help Diana, still working my way through all these enamels, about a 1/3 to 1/2 way through and up to 48 colors so far. I have absolutely no excuse for not doing something beautiful, so I better get cracking!

Hello everybody, I am a new member. I was involved in enameling several years ago and have only done it sporadically in the last 10 years. I carve gemstones and make jewelry and small sculptures. This is a link to my Picasa page if any are interested in my work. https://picasaweb.google.com/deborahkirkpatrick56

I was teaching some folks at my local gem and mineral club the fundamentals of enameling the other day and a gentleman came in and observed. Yesterday, he sought me out and told me he had alot of old enamels and he thought that I would put them to better use than he had. He gave me somewhere between 25-30 pounds of enamels. The majority of them are old Thompson's and are easy to identify, but not all.

I did a search on this website before I posted to see if this had been addressed in the past. I did see something here about old Amaco enamels which said that they were leaded. I spoke to someone at Amaco this morning who informed me that if they start with the prefixes ARO or ART, they are unleaded.

The ones that I am hoping you guys can help me with are the old "Fire Brite" enamels, put out by American Handicrafts which was a subsidiary of Tandy. I've already contacted Tandy and no one there has any memory of the product. These appear to be from the 60's and 70's. Were all enamels leaded at this point in time? I have at least 25 bottles of this, and would like to have some idea.

There are some others which have numbers that aren't from Schauer, Thompson, Ninomiya or Aoki. These are the only enamel makers I'm really familar with, any suggestions of who else they could be?

Needless to say, I am over the moon by being gifted this much booty. I believe (unless I'm mistaken) that the leaded enamel isn't as sensitive to deterioration as the unleaded, is that the case?

Could I put down an undercoat of lead-free, experiment with the unknowns on top to determine if they are lead-free or not? What should I look for to tell? Sorry to bother you guys with all of this, but this seems to be the only forum for enamelists that actually allows one to ask questions.

Debbie Kirkpatrick