I actually did a little "trial by fire," if you will. We’re remodeling our kitchen and my wife Carmen and I decided to incorporate fused glass tiles with the granite counter top and add a matching glass backsplash. Little did I realize that we had just committed to producing 82 linear miles, (I mean feet) of fused glass. Oh well, they say that big projects build character and I figured, what better way to get to know the ins and outs of System 96.

The first thing I noticed was the cutability.  Wow . . . it’s a real treat. Our design consisted of color bands running on a 30-degree angle, which meant cutting a lot of little points –– I didn’t lose a single one. Part of the beauty of the glass is the smooth surface. Not quite "float glass smooth," but close enough for easy cutting and clean, straight breaks. The next area of concern was the trapping of air bubbles between the four layers of 1/8 inch glass we used in our design. A smooth surface traps air differently than the more textured surface fusers are accustomed to. Here’s why:

The high-points of a textured glass create open valleys between the glass layers. These valleys will either capture air or allow it to escape, depending on your firing technique.

To minimize air bubbles we can use a "squeeze" technique. By soaking the glass at 1175°F for 3 to 5 hours, we allow the layers to slowly relax and "squeeze" the air out through the textural valleys, before the edges are sticky enough to seal. This type of squeeze works well with “90” glasses, but only so-so with System 96. The reason is the latter’s smooth surface (no valleys).

To "squeeze" System 96 I had to take into account its smooth surface.  The smooth surface meant there weren’t any valleys to allow air to escape.  Instead of a “soak point” Iused a gradation.  By slowly increasing temperature, I slowly decreased viscosity, squeezing air from the inside out. Think of it like applying contact paper – you carefully push air from the center toward the sides to eliminate bubbles; the edges seal last. The chart below shows the firing I used.

This firing cycle was used on test sheets measuring 5" x 9" x 2 layers. They resulted in less than 2 bubbles per square inch and those bubbles were very, very tiny in size. Not perfect, but acceptable for our needs.

There are other ways to minimize air bubbles, of course, like reducing the surface areas or edge lifting the top layers, but this time I needed a temperature squeeze and the method described proved to be more than adequate.

Another characteristic of System 96 is a straighter line quality on the top surface of projects. With “90” products, it is common to have wavy lines on the top surface of your fused pieces and straight lines on the bottom. The line quality of the System 96 glass is straight on both sides. Try this: cut 20 strips of glass 3/16" wide by, say, 8" long, of different colors. Set the strips on edge (you may need some ceramic fiber or a kilnwashed kiln post to help hold them so they don’t fall), place them tight together and fire to full fuse. Try this with both “90” and System 96 glasses.

There is one characteristic of the System 96 glass that has me a tad worried. I manufacture and sell overglaze products (to mask or eliminate devitrification) and, (uh oh) System 96 doesn’t need an overglaze. I fired several test pieces to full fuse three times without any signs of devit. On the 4th firing, on some colors, maybe 20% of the surface showed a very light coating of devit, so I sandblasted it off and fired again. The surface was just like new. I was amazed and impressed. So, has overglaze been rendered obsolete? Nah . . . maybe I can convince System 96 users that they need it to deodorize their kilns!

Here’s the bottom line: If I were to sit down and design the perfect glass for kiln work, an ideal glass that had the best qualities of all the products available, my dream product would look just like System 96. Good job boys and girls. You hit the nail on the head.

Oh yeah, the kitchen looks marvelous!!!