Can you buy pre-seasoned crucibles?

Jewelry Discussion
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And if so, where? I do all my melting on a charcoal block and only have a butane torch, but I was thinking it might be nicer to do it in a crucible. Thanks

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I have never seen them, but then, I have never looked for them. They aren’t hard to season. Lots of heat and some borax. I use a cheap restaurant style salt shaker to apply the borax. Others may have different ideas…Rob

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Hi Sue,

As Rob says, it’s easy enough to do do with enough heat. That being said, Craig Dabler sells them in a few sizes, Crucibles - Main - DIY Castings

Pam

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Good question! I see below that someone does sell prefluxed crucibles.

Remember that powdered flux melts at about 1000 F. If you can get the crucible hot enough to melt metal with your butane torch (1640F for sterling) you should be able to get your crucible hot enough to pre-season it with flux.

My biggest concern melting silver or similar metals in a ceramic crucible with a butane torch is that you’re going to use a lot of gas. Ceramic crucibles are like little bricks. You’re going to always have to spend a bit of time heating up the crucible first before you can melt your metal. The charcoal block heats up faster than a ceramic crucible.

You may find that building a kind of “kiln” around your ceramic crucible with firebrick might contain the heat a bit and speed up the process.

You’re being an inventor here, so experiment and see what works best!

Jeff

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I appreciate your responses - sounds like I should just keep doing what I’ve been doing, which works fine for now. Cheerio

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I just seasoned a new open crucible that I needed for 14KY. I am not sure what happened to the one that I already had. Anyway, I set up a heat proof surface and then turn down the lights. Heat the crucible slowly until it glows red as you move the flame around. I use a Meco on O2. Sprinkle in and all around maybe a 1/4 teaspoon of borax and heat it with the torch. Tip the crucible to get the liquid borax to flow evenly over all the inside surfaces. Do this a couple more times depending on the size of the crucible and make sure that you cover the pour spout. I then melted 18 grams of 14 KY and it poured just fine into the ingot mold…Rob

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