Catastrophe In the kiln, advice pls

[Shereen]

I got a full Roll of kiln paper and cut about 15 squares and placed them by my kiln. When I needed them I made circles and used them. Somehow a regular piece of large paper got mixed up with the pile.  At 680 degrees I smelled something odd. and opened the kiln to check.  The paper was black and all the areas I used glue were black too.   I would like to save these projects and need to know if I need to get all this black dried glue off before i try again. No glass melted and the frit and freeze Breast Cancer ribbons (5) were black - toss those?   

The burned on glue that turned black- is this a normal process or will it stain the glass if I leave it on- It's pretty hard to remove.
Thank you!  Very much!

[ct4mom]

Shereen, I very new to kiln work and have used kiln paper and it does turn black and has a slight odor around that temp but never had any glass or glue turn black  but never did the frit and freeze. Are you saying you stopped the process at this point? I'm sure one of the kiln pros will have much more to add.

[nansea121]

I have no idea either Shereen. Sorry you've encountered this problem m'dear. I'd be interested in knowing about that to.

[Shereen]

My grandmother in Holland used to sniff eggs in the shell to tell if they were fertilized and I inherited her sense of smell - Not always the best thing be to be superb at but it caught this problem very early. I opened it and removed everything when it was cool enough. I just don't know if I should try to get all this burned glue off about 60 pieces.  These were for the HUGE flower show on Coronado Island I am juried artist for.  I was Juried in for my stained glass but am doing some inexpensive flowers too. Being the first Stained glass person they juried in in 20 years really was humbling.   Do I toss all the frit and freeze that the top turned black?   Clean and reglue all the flowers?  It's VERY hard getting that burned glue off  .   Thank you

I feel so dumb this happened   

[Rebecca]

I'm thinking you should have let the kiln run it's course.  I could be wrong, but I think everything would have burned off and been fine if you hadn't stopped it.  What kind of glue did you use?

Rebecca

[Shereen]

Very watered down Weldbond  - it always burns of clean and has a strong fast tack. 

If i had let it run the full course wouldn't the paper burn away and all the glass melt and stick to the kiln shelf?    It was just regular paper i use for drawing patterns.  Tonight I'm going to stick one of the pieces with the burned black glue that seems to be "weldbonded"   heh   to the glass and see what happens  - also put some of that pink powder that has a gray cast on a sample piece and see what happens - I can't stand to throw things away if they can be used.  We shall see  :)

[Becki]

Thinfire will turn black and smell a bit like burnt sugar as the binders burn out....then it goes back to white. How much glue do you use? It needs time to burn out too.

[Shereen]

I feel like a complete moron. I apologize!  I 've used this a couple times (the paper)  but was not there when it was baking. I guess what really alarmed me was the color of the BLACK burned glue and the Black ribbons, Black paper i was making that were supposed to be a pretty pink. I just looked again- this is at 880 and the smell was back- here's what it looks like.  It's hard to tell from the photo but my ribbons are black again and Yellow daffodils are all orange! .         It didn't when I used kiln wash - why does that kiln paper make the frit and freeze black?  I'm so sorry i panicked - It's just that everything had a black cast to it. I thought i messed up .. guess not?  Why does it affect the color of everything?         

I used a toothpick drop on each piece

BTW the ribbons  turn out really nice- I'll show you them when I get done

[Becki]

No reason to feel bad...we've all been there. To be honest with you, I have no idea why the frit turned black.  I think if you had continued with the schedule the paper would have been white again and, once the schedule was finished and the glass cooled, your yellow may be yellow again unless it was a striker.

You said that you peeked at 880F?  Not a good idea to peek at temps under 1000...going up or coming down.

[Judy K]

Becki is right . Peeking is a no no under 1000.

On the other hand, I did it for the first time not long ago. I had put in some glass with a water based matt and oil based line drawing paint on top of the matt paint. No paper, just kiln wash. I wanted to see what was happening at 650F and was horrified to see black soot on everything!!!!!!! The kiln walls, the shelf, everything. It looked like black spray paint blown to the north. I closed the lid and walked away grumbling. The next morning everything was fine. so, I too learned to, A. Don't peek! ,and B. That when the binder is burning out it may leave soot for a while.

[Ian]

Shereen
Everybody is right about this. When you burn paper and thinfire in your kiln the sugar based binder burns black and gives off carbon particles. They would have looked worse in the frit freeze and fuse because the were still granular and the carbon would have settled into the frit. Once the kiln reaches fuse temps then the carbon burns away and leaves everything clean. You also were unfortunate in having a piece of paper in the kiln which made it look worse.
And remember what everyone said about not opening your kiln at anything under 1000. By the way I have left a spirit level in the kiln once and I can assure you that just about everyone has done something similar.
Keep Cooking
Ian