Friday Night Fusing Clinic
October 12, 2007 - 102 Uses for Kaiser Lee Board .....
Special Note: Kevin is going to Hot Glass Horizons in Portland, Oregon on the 24th of October. He will be touring and shopping at the Bullseye and Uroboros glass factories. If you have any requests for a specific colour or a kind of UnCats or Curious glass, please let us know before October 23rd, and he will see what he can find for you. It will take several weeks before the glass makes its way back to us here, but all good things come to those who wait.
Kaiser Lee Board (KLB) was discovered by accident by a German couple who were just getting into warm glass work. It is actually a insulation block that is used in large industrial, room sized kilns to help dry the paint faster on cars. The grade they sell as KLB is actually the lowest quality that is made. It is sliced off the large block, and then cut into smaller pieces. It is rated for use up to 2100 degrees F. KLB reflects heat, it does not absorb it. It does not need to be elevated like clay kiln shelves, it can be used flat on your kiln floor. It is easy to cut and carve, but must be handled carefully. Because it is porous, you will not get any bubbles in your firings. You can dunk it in water to get the dust off of it, but it needs 2 weeks to dry out. KLB does expand slightly when fired, about 0.1%.
A release agent should be used to help maintain the smoothness of the surface of the KLB. It can be kiln washed , you can use shelf paper on it, or you can rub a little mica powder on the flat surface and it will act as a release and also make the bottom of your glass nice and glittery! Iridescent glass fired with the iridescent side face down also acts as a easy release agent. Powdered kiln wash can also be used.
KLB is multi-purposed. You can fuse on it, slump into it, drape over it, cast in it, make pattern bars, do drop-rings, or comb in it. KLB's strong suit is creating non-traditional shapes. Your glass shape doesn't have to end at the edge of the mold. You can carve details into it that will be embossed into the underside. If you carve out a shape in the middle of a board, you can add in smaller pieces to add detail. To create a piece with a thicker end so you can stand it upright, stick in a shim underneath one end of the base layer.
Common tools can be used to cut and carve with KLB. A drywall sanding block, putty knifes of different widths, OLFA or X-Acto knives , wooden dowels, even popsicle sticks can be used with great success. The best thing to do is lay out several sections of old newspaper, and do all your cutting and carving work on them. Do not try to cut through it in one pass with a knife. Take many shallow passes with the blade. When you have a build up of dust, just roll up that sheet of newspaper and throw it out. You should wear a dust mask when cutting up KLB.
KLB comes in various sizes. It is expensive, but lasts a very long time. When a larger piece of it becomes unusable, you can cut it up and use the smaller pieces again as accent details, supports, whatever you want.
- 8" x 9" x 1" = $ 38.95
- 12" x 12" x 1" = $ 75.95
- 24" x 36" x 1" = $429.95
- 12" x 12" x 1.5" = $ 115.95
- 12" x 12" x 2" = $ 149.95
A Raffle for 12" x 12" x 1" piece of KLB was held at the end of the Clinic. Congratulations to Deb who had the lucky winning ticket.
