I've got a new large knifemaking kiln due next week that also opens up the possibility of doing my own enamelling. I wondered if anybody has any experience and useful tips for a beginner. There is at least one UK Tilley restorer I know of that is doing a great job of enamelling hoods and I'm hoping he will be willing to give help. I thought I'd start with the little hat off the Bialaddin 300X I'm working on today. On another thought does anyone else use magic sponges to get carbon off globes? I find they are brilliant at this, removing stains glass cleaners won't touch. I buy the Aldi ones that are cheap.
First: put a piece of cardboard on top of the kitchen counter. I use dasty, a cleaner/decreaser for soot on glass. Then a slight rub with the fingers.
Well it originates from Italy and a dutch shop called: Wibra has the wholesale rights for Europe. It has several facebook fangroups as well as a big amount of fans under motorbikes tribes. There was even a reel run from belgium to the Dutch shops when the Belgium shops where closed.
Would be very Interested To see how your enameling progresses, it's a frustration To clean Up a lamp but to have no way to tidy up the hood, especially The brown tilley ones which are so hard to replace.
If you manage to succefully re-enamel red hoods you might have a queue half way round the block waiting for your services!
It would appear my timing couldn't be worse. WG Ball the main UK retailer for wet enamels for steel has shut it's retail side because of brexit and is concentrating on trade. Could be a non starter.
Outlined in my post HERE I obtained various enamel powders (UK source, link in my post) and tried a kiln-less blowtorch technique well tried-and-tested as a jewellery enamelling technique. I had some success and the enamel on the patched-up hoods I’ve done hasn’t flaked off! As ever with soldering and silbrazing, cleaning/preparation of the base metal is crucial and firing a priming (base) oxide coat is an important stage. John Edit: read your reference to the supplier I used Robert. Damn!
@presscall Hi John, there's a chance Cookson Gold may stock the wet enamel in the next few weeks, no doubt at elevated prices, but I've not given up hope completely of having a go. Apparently EU trade accounted for 30-40% of WG Ball's retail sales so without it the retail side isn't viable.
@Robert Radcliffe Thanks Robert. That still leaves 60-70% of WG Ball’s retail sales as non-EU, so not insignificant. Oh well. Good for you for persevering, ‘elevated prices’ anticipated or not. Cooksongold eh? Well, enamel powder is surprisingly expensive stuff, I’ve found. Maybe on the intrinsic costs of the enamel powder alone I’ll content myself with ‘patching’ and not aspire to an all-over kiln job after all!
