Water Glass Bowl Coating?

[italdesign]

Hi Guys,

I've tried the sour cream, buttermilk and charcoal coating but I CAN taste it and it drives me nuts. I remember seeing someone post recipe containing water glass, charcoal and pumice but I can't seem to find it. What are the ratios and where do you get the pumice? If anyone knows, please let me know. Thanks and take care.

[RadDavis]

I used it years ago with charcoal. I'd just mixed charcoal dust into a small amount of waterglass until it looked sorta grainy.

You can order the charcoal from any drugstore, or buy it in capsules at GNC.

One drawback with waterglass is that with age, it will leach out of the coating, leaving a white deposit on your nice black bowl surface. Looks pretty crappy.

Rad

[KurtHuhn]

It's equal parts charcoal and pumice, with enough waterglass to make it the consistency of latex paint. Use small amounts of pumice and charcoal, unless you've got a dozen or so pipes to coat. A little goes a long way.

[ToddJohnson]

More pumice than charcoal and add a little water to help things emulsify. If there's too much sodium silicate then yes, it will start to precipitate at some point down the road. Once you've mixed a couple hundred batches--I always make it in very small batches--you'll get the ratio down so that it doesn't get that powdery white look around the top. Plus, Rad's from Alabama, so you know he added a little bit of sawmill gravy to his mixture, which is where the white could have come from. You've got to consider the source after all!

TJ
Oompa Loompa!

[RadDavis]

Mmmmmmmm.......sawmill gravy.

Rad

[Nick]

Mmmmmmmm.......sawmill gravy.

Rad

This is, of course, significantly different from the Ivy League gravy used by some pipemakers.

[ToddJohnson]

Ahem, . . . I can't speak for Princeton--a second tier Ivy at best--but at Yale we had no gravy, only "sauce." Preferably it had a French name or could only be created by great feats of molecular gastronomy. For what it's worth, I got great results using a foir gras sabayon. Makes for a very tasty break in.

TJ--former resident of the Republic of Alabamastan

[Nick]

Ahhh! Well, that explains it. Sauce, and not gravy. No wonder folks here up North have been giving me funny looks when i ask for gravy!

[FredS]

Clarifications PLEASE! Are you guys using the water glass you can buy at the drugstore?

In a previous life, I built & repaired injection molds. Those molds have water lines running through them for cooling, and we would use water glass to temporarily stop leaks until we could affect a permanent fix. Upon disassembly, I would find the water glass left a coating in the cooling lines that was like a thin layer of glass, and it would break into shards & slivers when we tried to mechanically clean it out with a wire brush or drill bit.

Are we talkin’ ‘bout the same stuff?

And where do you get pumice?

I've been using the buttermilk/sour cream/charcoal recipe and can indeed taste it (though I don't find it objectionable), so I'm interested in a new recipe.

[KurtHuhn]

Ask for gravy in the right place up here, and you'll get some variation of tomato sauce. I've been vary careful ever since - especially when I eat at someplace named Guido's or Capriccio's.

[KurtHuhn]

That's the very same stuff, Fred. I ordered a gallon of it from Chemistrystore.com several years ago. I think I got the pumice from the same place (look for 'fine' pumice powder). The charcoal I ordered from the drugstore.

[FredS]

BTW - Didja know that the "Cash for Clunkers" program (an economic incentive program in which the US government gave people $4500 to trade their old car (clunker) and buy a new one) requires that the engines be "destructively disabled"? The procedure calls for replacing the engine oil with water glass and running it until it seizes up!

[KurtHuhn]

BTW - Didja know that the "Cash for Clunkers" program (an economic incentive program in which the US government gave people $4500 to trade their old car (clunker) and buy a new one) requires that the engines be "destructively disabled"? The procedure calls for replacing the engine oil with water glass and running it until it seizes up!

Which, in and of itself, is an ecological nightmare releasing all manner of bad crap into the atmosphere. I've seen videos of people standing around breathing the resulting smoke as an engine is disabled. Welcome to silicosis, my friends. I hope it's more pleasant than mesothelioma.