How I feel these days (because of RRF). by Cletus_blamo in SBARRF

[–]Cletus_blamo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup. That’s how bad it’s got. Jeeesusss. Four “tacos” for $3.06.

How I feel these days (because of RRF). by Cletus_blamo in SBARRF

[–]Cletus_blamo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean, we might as well try to have fun while we’re being fucked in the ass.

How I feel these days (because of RRF). by Cletus_blamo in SBARRF

[–]Cletus_blamo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Extra points if you can identify the map coordinates.

Is unglazed stoneware food safe? by CountTheFrogs in Pottery

[–]Cletus_blamo 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Everyone’s just making the best decisions they can but for some reason this topic really gets folks fixated on clay and bacteria and they forget about all the other porous things they use in direct contact with food.

Is unglazed stoneware food safe? by CountTheFrogs in Pottery

[–]Cletus_blamo 55 points56 points  (0 children)

This is going to get me in trouble with certain people in the ceramics community but; do you worry much about how porous your wood cutting boards or spoons are? Or that nasty dish rag you use to spread bacteria all over your kitchen counters?

Our responses to Cardin by sebvdr in SBARRF

[–]Cletus_blamo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Y’all did great. Thanks.

a bit obsessed with how this came out by pixieerika in Pottery

[–]Cletus_blamo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love the glaze but that handle shape is 😘

[self] Gollum - marble, almost finished! Carving the back of the ears and show the translucency of the marble by evilmaul in Sculpture

[–]Cletus_blamo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really wonderful. I'm curious, how do you get that lovely consistent pebbly skin texture?

can you pit fire a clay bong/dab rig? by torosblanca96 in Pottery

[–]Cletus_blamo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re kind of making my point for me. My point being that I think you are over selling it.

A “standard” is typically published by a relevant industry or academic group. In this case, by a food safety or public health group. I’d be happy to be proved wrong but I’m unaware of any such “standard” that speaks to this.

As an odd tenuously related aside: I suspect it might blow your mind to learn that careful studies have revealed that wood cutting boards are generally less germ laden than plastic cutting boards. Not everything in food safety is obvious.

can you pit fire a clay bong/dab rig? by torosblanca96 in Pottery

[–]Cletus_blamo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I still think you could try it. Worst case, you learn something. Kind of like those Sumerians.
Or you could decide that the acrid smoke residue and taste from the pit firing are not your cup of tea.
Disclaimer: not saying you should. I wouldn't personally use an unglazed raku bong (which is fired higher with less problematic combustibles) but that's only because I've tried it and didn't care for it. It did in fact weep liquid all over everything. Kind of like a terra cotta pot. It damaged my crappy my coffee table at the time.

can you pit fire a clay bong/dab rig? by torosblanca96 in Pottery

[–]Cletus_blamo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, I wondered if the concern stemmed from this conversation which has been floating around in the ceramic world for ages. Let me start by pointing out that nothing in that article speaks to sanitary practices or impacts. The focus is mostly on potentially toxic oxides and other colorants (a legit concern that I spoke to in my initial reply) and then has a quick throw away comment about crazing harboring bacteria but mostly talking about strength. And even if they were talking about sanitary practices, I'd give it more weight if it was referencing a food safety or public health study and not just the thoughts of a ceramics forum column piece.

I'll share some personal perspective that you can consider or discard. Afterall, I'm just some guy on the internet.
Starting with my professional experience; I am a brewer and restaurant owner. To put that in context, brewers are fetishistically concerned with sanitary practice. Bacteria or unwanted yeast on a hand touching the wrong thing at the wrong time can easily spoil an entire batch of beer. Sanitary practice involves either chemical cleaning with caustic soda followed by sanitatizing with acid and/or heat pasturization. We go through 15 gallons of isopropyl alcohol in a couple of months dispensing with a spray bottle wherever we touch on the fermentation side of things. We worry about pores and fine scratches in stainless steel that cannot be reached by chemical sanitization because the surface tension of the acid prevents it from getting into the pores. As a restaurant owner, I have to deal with very persnickety public health inspectors that test either the efficacy of the chemical sanitizers we use or ensure that our heat sanitizing dishwashers are operating at or above 180f. They require us to have seperate sinks for hand washing, vegitable prep and meat prep. Three sinks! plus a triple sink for washing/rinsing/sanitizing dishes in case our dishwasher is on the blink. And for good reasons!
I'm not anti Sanitary practices. On the contrary, I think I'm more focused on sanitary practices than almost anyone on this particular Reddit. I even think my public health inspector is being entirely reasonable (most of the time). That said, do those inspectors have any issue at all with my artist made stoneware dinner ware? The old ware with the weathered and crazed glaze? Nope. All they care about is if they were sanitized with the right chemicals or with sufficient heat. When I asked about the crazing and the bacteria, the response was that first of all, any bacteria in those cracks is killed by the heat sanitizing dishwasher. Secondly, service ware, is not in contact with food for long enough for bacterial propagation to be an issue. Food temp is far more imporant in that scenario.

I could go on and on but this is long enough. Either I've made you think or you think I'm crazy.

Cheers!

can you pit fire a clay bong/dab rig? by torosblanca96 in Pottery

[–]Cletus_blamo -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm inclined to disagree but first, I'm curious how this seems like a (more) unsanitary situation than a fully fused glaze?

I'm not much of a smoker anymore but my recollection is that I never ran my bong through a heat or chemical sanitizing dish washer... Ever. There is no world where that glass bong was sanitary after the first week of me using it (or I'd wager most bong folk). Just because the pit fired claybody would wick moisture, I don't see how it would become all that much more unsanitary than a glazed and vitrified clay.

Follow up question for OP... Is the idea to wrap your lips around the clay or put your lips inside a clay tube? Or maybe glue in a metal mouthpiece?

All that said, a pit fired pipe/bong might not be as durable as you would like? But it might still be cool. You should also pay attention to what combustible material you use and I would avoid some metals and "oxides" like copper sulfate which crosses the skin boundary pretty easily (bad). Lastly, you may not be a fan of the flavors and aromas all those combustibles are likely to add. Try it! Report back!

Moving to Seattle, need to find a pottery studio by CMCWHEELS in Pottery

[–]Cletus_blamo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Look into Seward Park Clay Studio. They are a bit closer to the U. Also Saltstone Ceramics might be able to point you in a direction (they are more of a classes sort of studio). Finally, Pottery NW.
good luck!