I spent most of my life in ceramics; Most work with fine china and crystal. My friend suggested that I write an article to help the bride choose her porcelain.
It's funny, but I rarely write about ceramics. I have written several books on this subject, and I was an editor Journal of Ceramic Industry so it is not that I did not practice very well in this matter. A letter is always an avocation with me and separately from my profession.
I wrote novels in my free time. I wrote a novel in which pottery was concentrated in the county of Lancaster Pennsylvania. Novel Kostya China. Bone china is a complex detective story, where the detective wonders what happens to the missing people from the small town of Pennsylvania. Are they cremated in an abandoned ceramic factory and used to make bone china? The Nazis? This is as close as I got to the pottery.
Well, let's get to the bottom. Let's look at some of the factors that you should consider when choosing your beautiful porcelain. First, remember that porous porcelain is not covered here. This is called a semi-vitreous product, the queen, etc. The pottery is also not covered.
Definitions
Bone china
There are several types of fine porcelain in which you will be interested. First Bone china ,
Bone china is made from bone. Bone ash is formed from the high-temperature calcination of animal bones. Bone ash is a commodity. This means that it comes from a number of different countries and the bones of many animal species are used.
The bones used to make ash ash come from camels, horses, cows, pigs, llamas and other creatures.
The question here is: does it matter to you?
If you were a Jew, maybe.
I can only say the following: when bones are calcined, all organic matter is destroyed. Bone ash becomes exactly the same as a natural mineral found in phosphate rock. You cannot tell the difference once it is in ceramics.
For a year I was a consultant to Jewish rabbis. The consensus has always been that high-temperature cleaning of bone ash makes it kosher. If this bothers you, talk to your rabbi.
Remember this: the bone ash used to make certain porcelain may not have been made from the bones of pigs. Most large porcelain companies indicate that the bone does not contain pig bones. However, in my experience in the industry, most ash suppliers can not always guarantee that some pig bones can join their process.
Many Jewish brides have decided that bone china is kosher. I agree with them for one reason, most rabbis agree with them.
How much fly ash should be in bone china? The classic formula is 50%. If the content is below 47%, you may lose one of the most important properties of bone porcelain. Porcelain bone should be white, not white.
The transparency of the composition of the crown dust in the composition. If you put your hand behind the bone plate, you should see it alive. The reason is that the refractive index of the formed phosphate compounds coincides with the refractive index of glass formed in ceramics. Since they are the same, the light does not diffract.
Just remember that. Porcelain bone must be completely white and translucent. This means that there is very little ball clay in the composition. Fine English kaolin keeps the body whiteness. Chinastone - flint / feldspar used by British pottery for the same reason.
Porcelain bone is made China. This means that the body is burned to a high temperature until the body is completely weak or vitreous body. This first shooting is called bik fire or bisque fire. After a bisque fire, the dishes are heated, glazed and fired at a lower temperature. The decorations are applied with decal, hand-painted, embossed, etc. More on this later.
Non-bone fine china
Most manufacturers make up Ivory grade porcelain. Ivory is very popular and also very beautiful if the body is formed correctly and the body is fully ripe during firing.
Composition is what we, the ceramic engineers, call the "field". This means that the body contains mineral feldspar. The concentration of feldspar is high to ensure that the body is vitreous. Canadian feldspar (nepheline syenite) is sometimes used to reduce the firing temperature.
English kaolin guarantees the desired degree of whiteness and transparency. Only small amounts of ball clay are used. The remaining ingredient is flint. For fine porcelain and bone china, the body must be ground to fineness in order to develop the desired properties. Glazing and decoration are the same as for bone porcelain.
Porcelain
It all started with the Chinese. The word "kaolin" (Chinese clay) was derived from the name of the Chinese province. Maybe the province still exists under the same name, as far as I know. The classic composition is 50% kaolin, 25% silica (silica) and 25% feldspar.
European porcelain is popular among brides. Some manufacturers were able to get closer to the whiteness and translucency of Chinese porcelain. Note that bone china is the closest to Chinese porcelain.
Porcelain is made porcelain process. While the porcelain process begins with a high fire on biscuits, the porcelain process begins with a low fire in the courtyard. Products easily graze because they are porous after firing. No heating required. The final fire is a high-temperature fire, unlike low-temperature burning in the porcelain process. In the porcelain process, body and glaze ripen together. It adds strength.
Due to the higher temperatures needed to decorate porcelain, the result is not always as good as in fine porcelain (most often in the best jewelery) and bone porcelain.
Parian China and Frit Porcelain
Low-temperature porcelain made very attractive. They are less popular than bone china, china and fine china for American brides.
Estimate your china or china
I do not want to upset you with more detailed technical details. Let me just list a few points to consider the desirability and life of your porcelain.
Leg and back
When ceramic engineers go out for dinner, the first thing they do is turn the plate over. What for? First they see who made them. Some fine restaurants use fine china (including bone china). Most others use Hotel China, an American invention specifically designed to serve the restaurant. What is suitable for restaurants is probably not suitable for your porcelain cabinet.
Looking at the leg, I suggest that you first look at the leg, see if it is glazed. If it is unglazed, rub your finger gently and slowly around the foot. Watch for sharp projections of the glaze when you do this. I don't want you to cut your pretty finger.
Is the foot rough?
If it is rough, it should be polished until it is smooth, using a stone for polishing. An unglazed foot will require you to keep napkins between the plates in your porcelain cabinet, so that the foot does not wipe the glaze on the other plates. You must be careful when washing dishes and when cleaning the plates from the table. You don't want scratches on your glaze, do you?
Most of the fine porcelain porcelain porcelain porcelain porcelain porcelain porcelain porcelain products have an unglazed foot. The foot is polished at the factory before you get it, but make sure you check every detail.
If the foot is glazed, locate the marks on the bottom surface of the glaze. Such dishes can not be released on foot, because it will adhere to the installers of the furnace. Pin marks can be very noticeable. Some manufacturers place dishes on tiny ceramic spheres, rather than pins. Signs are very noticeable. If there are pin marks, make sure they have been polished to remove rough edges.
Look at the manufacturers brand on the bottom of the plate. Is he focused? Can you read it easily? Does he have a template name? Now decide, do not care about such functions. Take a last look at the back of the plate. Are there any glaze defects? Is the glaze application uniform on the back of the plate? Are there pits, inclusions or spots? Some uneven spots
Front plate
Turn the plate and rub your finger around the rim. Is it smooth as silk, or is it uneven? Any thin spots? Look at the surface of the glaze on any pits or impurities. Remember that different manufacturers have different control standards. A very small pit may be considered acceptable. One manufacturer may have a standard that says that there are no holes other than the tiny one on the back of the plate.
Most manufacturers of porcelain and bone china use lead glazes. The reason - the gloss of the glaze. Is the cause of health problems? Not in normal conditions. Most people use their fine china nine times (9) times a year. This can be a problem - you give your child his or her orange juice in a thin porcelain cup every day. Do not do this.
So, the glaze is shiny and free from defects?
Jewelery
Despite the fact that manufacturers reduced the number of decoration lights by combining functions, there are traditionally three decoration decorations. The first fire firing is called “fire with the inscription”, namely, when the stickers are placed in accordance with the design. Stickers are available as screen printing or lithography. Color printed on the screen stickers are thicker and often more intensional than lithographic stickers.
Enamel or heavy color are placed further into the “enamel fire”. Now days, the enamel can be placed on a decal and combined into one shot.
The last shooting is shooting from “precious metal” or “archery”. Gold or platinum are applied to the rim and some areas of the structure. This, too, is sometimes applied to the sticker and omits everything but one shot.
Here are some decoration considerations. Are the decorations on the plate properly decorated? Wipe them with your finger. Are they sitting on top of the glaze or deeply immersed in it? Stickers should be dipped in the glaze so that they do not rub off. They should not sink until now that they are no longer attractive. Solid gold is gold that will not be a buff that has dropped too much into the glaze. Soft gold is gold that sits on top of the glaze and is easily washed. Watch for soft gold on china. The icing is very hard, and it is difficult to get jewelery and precious metal to sink into the icing. (“Hard” in this sense means not very fusible during a fire of fire.)
Service issues for Fine China
Fine porcelain stands on your canteens, dishes and storage.
Yes, fine china can be damaged in your porcelain cabinet, if the foot of one plate rubs against the surface of another plate that scratches the icing. After scratching it is scratched. The hardness of the glaze is the highest in high-temperature porcelain and the lowest in fine porcelain with a low burning level. Bone china is between them. Bone china is a good choice for beauty and durability.
Knife marking is the worst of cookware. Marks may actually be slits in the glaze and cannot be removed. They can also be metallized from cookware that can be removed with SoftScrub®. Here, I suggest you not to use extremely stiff steak knives in fine porcelain service.
Cups and other shapes
Look at the handles of the cups. I said, “Cups,” not “a bowl.” You should look at a few to talk about quality.
If the handle of the cup is molded by injection molded cup, it should look perfect.
If the handle of the cup is glued to the cup after the main body of the cup has been formed, it may not be perfect. Stuck pens sometimes fall away in service. This is a manufacturer's nightmare.
The problem is that the plastic handle does not “fit well” (during shrinkage) on a plastic molded cup.
There are not many problems with the placement of pens on a plastic cup. (The problem is technical, and I will not explain it here. Email me if you really want to know.)
Look at the junction where the handle meets the cup. Does he look neat and clean? Is there an excessive buildup of glaze where they connect? You don't want anything ugly?
Check the bowls and make sure they will fold. If they will not take shape, I have a suggestion: run! (Well, if you can put up with bowls that don't fit, and you just like the design, go and buy them.)
Teapots should check their pens like with cups. Check the handles on the lids of kettles and pans. Do you think they will stay? Are they attractive?
Guarantee
Read the warranty carefully. (Well, have someone read it.) Ask how long your replacement template is guaranteed. You do not want to go to Replacements Inc. (http://www.replacements.com/index.htm?s1=kx&896&) if you do not need it.
Yes, you can email me questions.
Oh! Congratulations!
the end
Bride, China, how to choose porcelain, porcelain, porcelain, porcelain, porcelain defects, fine china, Parisian, porcelain, processing, storage
