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I will be interested to hear what the experts say, also. In the meantime, I'm using a cheap marble-type mortar and pestle (the kind used for herbs) that I purchased from a thrift store. I also have a ceramic/frosty-porcelain-type I purchased at another second hand store for $7; it looks similar to one I saw on one of the enamel supply websites. Maybe these aren't correct to use??? Will be interesting to hear from the experts.
Here is a porcelain one for $25. http://enamelworksupply.com/tools.html
The company is in Washington state. It is a one-person (Coral Shaffer) company and very nice to do business with. I think she is a member of GoG.
Thanks so much. I saw some really inexpensive porcelain ones on Amazon $7.00 range. I'll try it.
What's important is that you get one that is hard enough to avoid contaminating your powder with bits of the mortar. If you want to be on the safe side, take an agate mortar (very expensive though). For ceramic mortars this will depend on what ceramic is used and what is the structure. Then the roughness will determine how thin you can grind with it.
Hello.
Best of all is an agate mortar.
Agate is harder than enamel and its not dirty.
Porcelain and enamel have similar hardness and mortar will be drawn.
I bought at auction for 40 zł (10 usd)
Here is a photo of a mortar and pestle that Ricky Frank recommended at one of his workshops I attended - You can purchase it at a Bed Bath and Beyond - the rubber base can also be used as a top - This particular mortar is made by "Progressive" and can be found in the Kitchen gadget area -
Grind your enamels under water- rinse by allowing the sink faucet to stream into the bowl and tip your bowl to remove the the cloudy water - Always make sure you have a bucket underneath the faucet to catch the fines and glass particles so that it does not go down your drain - You should grind until you can't hear loud crunching - once you have thoroughly dried out your enamels you can then sift them through a series of mesh sifters - 80-100-200-325 for the grain of your choice -
In the Workbook von Thompson Enamel on page 36/37 one can a short description find, how to grind enamel lumps quick and easy. Woodrow Carpenter grind the lumps in several steps. My enamels I grind since years with this method. I find it very effective.
I use a porcelain mortar and pestle. I had never problems wit porcelain dust in my transparente enamels.
Hi -
A newbie here now wanting to grind 80 mesh (the only kind I've used so far) to 100.
I assume you grind in mortar and pestle then sift through the desired screen size.
Looking on the Thompson Enamel website the mortar and pestle would cost approx. $118!
Wow! Pretty pricey. Is this the only way to get the finer grains?
Thanks in advance.
You don't need anything expensive. What I found most imporant is the size of the pestle. My pestel covers the entire mortar bowl. This way I can roll the pestle around in circles. This set up cost me $10.00. I found that the smaller pestels took a lot longer to grind down the enamel. Just a thought. Charles