akronmarbles

No single element will make 'black' coloured glass. Mixes of colorants are generally used depending on the application of the glass.

Formula #1

glass...

sand 1000

soda 360

nitrate 40

feldspar 250

purple...

manganese dioxide 25

blue...

cobalt 1 1/4

opacifiers....

fluorospar 110

sodium fluorosilicate 40

green....

Potassium bichromate 5

grey...

nickel oxide 2 1/2

Formula #2

glass...

sand 1000

soda 360

nitrate 37 1/2

feldspar 300

purple...

manganese dioxide 25

blue...

cobalt 1 7/8

opacifiers...

fluorospar 102

sodium fluorosilicate 50

green...

potassium bichromate 6 1/4

gray....

nickel oxide 2 1/2

Formula #1 and #2 contain opacifiers

The last formula from Alley is a highly doped amber / purple / blue / green glass

This makes the base glass:

sand 600

soda 300

limestone 60

This makes amber:

coal 30

Sulfur 5

This makes purpe:

manganese dioxide 80

This makes blue:

cobalt 1/2

And this makes green:

potassium bichromate 7

Those are very nice! The mica examples are pretty.

The earliest version of this ad that I have is from April 6th, 1911 - it appeared in The Youth's Companion. This was less than a month after the initial Akro trademark application was filed on March 23rd, 1911.

Recent creation.....made a few 1" ones yesterday..

Process shown in this video....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGvtWCX8QD4

A bullet mold needs to be injected - these are not injected - they are pressed by what is refererred to as the Prosser method.

I have one for sale....

an assortment of 1"....

2" beast....

I made a few 2" and two 1" mibs yesterday.

Item is listed on ebay....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=151024708993

It is indeed amazing stuff to play with. This was made off-hand at the glory hole. Glass was formulated and melted from batch to fit 96 COE glass. I have been blowing this stuff for the past couple of weeks.

I haven't made any marbles since June of 2009. I have been melting silver based opal glasses lately and rolled a few out yesterday. Wild glass colors. This is all from one glass batch; i.e., no colors were blended to make this. This glass is naturally variegated like the copper based opaque colors I was making before.

California..

Interesting Hansel. Sloppy grinding work. I wonder who the seller is? Rootstown is just a county away.

Looks like one of my creations and I agree that the pontil has been modified. SIze is right as well.

IMHO....Bubbles, ridges, and orange peel surfaces are easy to replicate. It just requires working at a lower temp. Hard to do if torching but easy to do at the furnace.

Please post more pics. I am just offering some of my personal glass working observations. Free dialogue is all about sharing and learning.

The oxbloods are from the last time I made marbles back in March of 2008. Below are some of the first marbles I ever made and they look exactly like the Bulgarian example that started this thread. My crucible was a ceramic dog food bowl in the bottom of my glory hole. I melted scrap glass. It is rather easy to make seedy old looking glass with as-made broken air holes, embedded dirt/ metal oxide. Mine are all melted pontil as Hansel states. Making a ground pontil example is easier than making the melted variety. The Bulgarian example was just made with a course grinding stone - looks like 80 grit diamond to me. It really speeds up the production pace when you only have to knock a finished marble off into the annealing oven and not mess with the flame polishing and smoothing.......

How old are these?

Sears catalog ads show German handmades up till the fall of 1916 - then they reappear again in the fall of 1921 catalog and are present till the spring of 1923 when the dissappear for good. Montgomery Ward & Co shows German handmades in 1925 and 1926. The American Wholesale Corp has German handmades for sale in 1927 including sulphides.

This is what comes up:

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I can't seem to open both of your url's Hansel...can you cut and paste them? I had a note on my list that said "add citation later" oops...I probably have a paper copy of it back in my files at the glass shop. It probably came from google books or here: http://www.hathitrust.org/

Hansel...I have your pamphlet dated from 1925 - 1935. I must have a letter somewhere from Miller or Wright which states such or else I wouldn't have dated my file such.

Glasmärbel makers Germany in 1925

1. Müller & Kühnert in Piesau (Thüringen)

2. Müller Söhne, Louis, Glashüttenwerke Marienthal und Blechhammer, in Marienthal bei Haselbach (Thüringen)

3. Müller-Löb, Ernst. Glasfabrik in Lauscha (Thüringen)

4. Kühnert & Co., G., in Ernstthal a. Rwg. bei Lauscha (Thüringen)

5. Greiner - Wirth, August, Glasfabrik in Lauscha (Thüringen)

6. Greiner – Vetters Sohn, Elias, in Lauscha Georgstr 39 (Thüringen)

7. Glasfabrik Wernerhütte Gebr. Schuller, in Haselbach (Thüringen)

8. Glasfabrik Marienhütte m.b.H. in Fehrenbach (Thüringen)

9. Glasfabrik Ernstthal, Justus Müller’s Sohn, in Ernstthal am Rennsteig i. (Thüringen)

10. Eichorn & Co., in Steinach (Thüringen) also listed as glass eye maker.