Ferro Frit 3134 is NOT A SUBSTITUTE for Gerstley Borate

This frit, or any of similar chemistry (e.g. Fusion F-12) IS NOT A 1:1 SUBSTITUTE for Gerstley Borate, their chemistries are too different. That being said, the frit sources lots of B₂O₃, that makes it a candidate to weave into recipes as the source of boron. To show the difference I have put 100 parts of each in side-by-side recipes in my Insight-live.com account, set the calculation type to non-unity formula and increased the frit until the B₂O₃ in the two match. Notice it takes 118g of the frit to source the same amount of B₂O₃ as 100 GB. Notice also that the frit sources almost triple the amount of Na₂O per weight unit (that is a big deal because it means the recipe containing the Gerstley Borate to be substituted needs an Na₂O-sourcing material that can be reduced to compensate). And the frit sources 3.5 times the SiO₂ (other SiO₂-sourcing materials in the recipe will need to be cut to compensate). And the Gerstley Borate has significant MgO while the frit has none (so an MgO-sourcing material like talc will be needed). Minor tweaks will also be needed to reduce other sources of CaO (since the frit has quite a bit more). The recipe will also need enough flexibility to do the final matching of Al₂O₃ and SiO₂. The GBMF test confirms the difference at 1700F, these 10-gram balls melted down onto the tiles very differently.

Related Pictures

Gerstley Borate is passing on to a better place. With a 300% price hike.

Gerstley Borate has just become Costly Borate. The supplier, LagunaClay.com, likely raised the pice to wake us all up to take action in substituting it before supplies run out. It is a ceramic glaze flux, sourcing boron to melt far better than any other common raw material. It has been a foundation material in low and middle temperature pottery glaze recipes for many decades. Potters have a love/hate relationship with it: Enjoying its low melting point but enduring its problems (inconsistency, gelling of the slurry, crawling, micro-bubbles, boron-blue discoloration). Strangely most people have used it without knowing what it really was. And few realize how easy it is to replace. Yes, existing substitutes work sometimes - but it is better to adjust each glaze recipe to source boron from a frit (fixing other issues also). Please read that last statement carefully. It did not say that there is any frit that can substitute. It said that frits can source boron.

Gerstley Borate vs Frit 3134 melt fluidity comparison

Here the melt fluidity of Gerstley Borate (GB) is being compared to Ferro Frit 3134 (using a GLFL test). Clearly, these are two very different materials. GB is a clay, Frit 3134 is a man made powdered glass. Notice the GB shrinks to about half its original size by 1600F and then suddenly by 1650 it has exploded out of the starting gate and crossed the finish line! The frit, conversely, slowly softens through the entire 1350-1650 range and then starts down the runway between 1650 and 1700F. While it is clear that frit 3134 is not a direct substitute for the Gerstley Borate (GB) it's more gradual melting make it a better source as a source of B₂O₃ (boron).

Links

URLs	https://gerstleyborate.com GerstleyBorate.com - The best place for info on Gerstley Borate This page is the gateway to the most comprehensive source of information about the material and what it actually is. It will get you on track to removing this troublesome material from your recipes and using frits instead.
URLs	https://insight-live.com/insight/share.php?z=td5N6ka2kx Learn about common Gerstley Borate recipes This home page enables viewing the common glossy glaze types, both recipes and calculated chemistry. Notes to help understand them are included.
Materials	Ferro Frit 3134 A frit with 23% B2O3. The most common of frits used in pottery in North America. Around the world, other companies make frits of equivalent chemistry.
Materials	Gillespie Borate A Gerstley Borate substitute that became available during the early 2000s and is still available in 2023.
Media	Getting Frustrated With a 55% Gerstley Borate Glaze I show you why people love/hate this material and how I substituted it for Ulexite in this crazy recipe to make a far easier-to-use slurry that fires identical.

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