Interesting oddity about palladium foil/sheet: Back when the company I work
for had big lasers, palladium was sometimes used as a target material. I
have a piece with a half-inch hole burned through the middle from a laser
test and it produced a nice series of concentric colored rings, from local
heating effects, sort of like titanium or case-hardened steel.

"Mike Beede" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Bryan" wrote:

Then come back and report, I'm now curious.

Bryan "copper foil is for sticking solder around glass" Paschke

Okay. I didn't check with Olympic, but I did check with
someone that knows roughly everything about glass. He
said that you can't use copper foil/leaf hot, though
you can use it warm. He did some fusing with it about
thirty years ago. At that time, the only kind available
to him was adhesive-backed (probably used for stained
glass just like today). At fusing temperatures, the
goo on the back would burn, releasing gas and tarnishing
some of the foil, so there would be shiny and corroded
patches. He didn't care for the effect, though he said
some people liked it. He had enough other ideas that
he never bothered getting any non-adhesive copper to try.

I think he was amused at the idea that anyone would try
to work with it hot . . . he said that only works with
silver and gold. As a side note, I see that you can
also get palladium foil, which can be worked hot. It
is very expensive but is supposed to have a wide range
of colors. When I can bring myself to spring $65 for
25 small sheets, I might try some, but my at my skill
level it wouldn't really make sense. He said that he
sometimes used a palladium solution on fused glass, but
didn't know how it would work to drip some onto a bubble
and heat in the furnace. It needs to go to 1200 degrees
to become metallic, which of course is no problem in
the furnace. Unknown how hot it can get, though. If
the range is small, it might be possible but hard to
achieve. If it lasts up to a high heat (or better yet,
if it passes through a range of colors) it might be
pretty cool. A small bottle is around fifty bucks. I
guess I could try it and then pass it along to a fuser
if it was a disaster. I'm thinking I might be able to
dissolve it in a larger amount of water and dunk a
piece in it. That might give a combined crackle effect
with palladium on the surface. Or the steam might
prevent it from ever reaching the surface.

It might be possible to make a solid form of some kind
analogous to silver bromide/chloride/iodide. That
would probably be a lot easier to get onto a hot piece.
I see that it does form these compounds, but their
melting points are on the order of 250 degrees C vs.
450-550 degrees for the silver ones. Maybe that
wouldn't be the best way to use it, either. Not to
mention I'd have to find a source or make them myself....

In the event I try it, I will report on the result.

Mike Beede