{"id":2477,"date":"2010-03-02T19:21:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T03:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/?p=2477"},"modified":"2023-02-22T14:36:33","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T22:36:33","slug":"which-carbon-to-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/02\/which-carbon-to-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Carbon to Use?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although some coal-based carbons are suitable for firing copper and bronze, I have recently decided to stick to coconut-shell carbon. For some time I had not been able to get a good contrast between the copper and the bronze in mixed pieces. This can happen for two main reasons:<\/p>\n<p>1. Over-sanding prior to firing (this could cause particles from each metal to &#8220;bleed&#8221; into the other);<br \/>\n2. Oxidation of the copper in the process of firing.<\/p>\n<p>I knew it wasn&#8217;t the first reason. Something was causing oxidation. After ruling out other possibilities, I replaced my coal carbon with coconut-shell. The differences were striking. Here is how the pieces looked straight from the kiln. I used my new firing method, 1:00 hour at 1450\u00baF in a fiber blanket box.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"frame-outer  aligncenter size-full wp-image-2478\"><span><span><span><span><a href=\"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/t-Straight-from-the-kiln.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/t-Straight-from-the-kiln.jpg\" alt=\"t-Straight from the kiln\" title=\"t-Straight from the kiln\" width=\"415\" height=\"360\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2478\" srcset=\"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/t-Straight-from-the-kiln.jpg 504w, http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/t-Straight-from-the-kiln-300x260.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 504px) 100vw, 504px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Another great advantage to coconut-shell carbon is that although I used very little carbon, very little ash was created. I was easily able to vacuum the ash and re-use the same carbon over and over.<\/p>\n<p>The carbon is coconut-shell, acid washed, size 12 x 40.<\/p>\n<p>Bear in mind that probably not all coconut-shell carbons are the same. Different vendors may be supplying different brands. Moreover, vendors change their own suppliers and you may be getting a different brand even if you ordered from your regular vendor. It has happened to me more than once that I was working with one supplier, being quite happy with the carbon, and then the next shipment wouldn&#8217;t work anymore.<\/p>\n<p>So I suggest ordering small amounts and testing them. I can&#8217;t afford to buy from every possible supplier and test, but I would be happy to test for you if you send me samples.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"frame-outer  small aligncenter size-full wp-image-2482\"><span><span><span><span><a href=\"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/t-Bracelet1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/t-Bracelet1.jpg\" alt=\"t-Bracelet\" title=\"t-Bracelet\" width=\"415\" height=\"95\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2482\" srcset=\"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/t-Bracelet1.jpg 504w, http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/t-Bracelet1-300x68.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 504px) 100vw, 504px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although some coal-based carbons are suitable for firing copper and bronze, I have recently decided to stick to coconut-shell carbon. For some time I had not been able to get a good contrast between the copper and the bronze in mixed pieces. This can happen for two main reasons: 1. Over-sanding prior to firing (this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9233,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions\/9233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}