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Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: stew2u2 on July 03, 2012, 11:11:26 PM

Title: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: stew2u2 on July 03, 2012, 11:11:26 PM
I have this MH IOW paperweight signed it a very nice weight but i dont know if it has a flaw in the glass. i have ringed it in on pic
i have looked at it a few times under a glass. sometimes it looks like two bits of silver / then it looks like two bubbles then two cracks  it has no sign of any damage. could it be when made it wasnt cooled right but then it wouldnt have made it out of the glass works.
second question does this have a name i know its a pedestal weight any info would be greatful thanks
stew
just looked at it again in the bottom photo there is another silver mark this is the same definitely a bubble
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: Lustrousstone on July 04, 2012, 06:35:13 AM
Does it catch on your finger nail? If not it's inside the glass and a bubble. If it does then it's damage of some sort. The squarish edges look more like damage though. You can generally feel a crack or damage
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: stew2u2 on July 04, 2012, 09:43:03 AM
no it is inside the weight there are no marks on the outer face of the weight not a blemish and its a good half an inch inside the weight
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: stew2u2 on July 04, 2012, 10:44:35 AM
looked at it again it looks like flakes of silver
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 04, 2012, 11:03:10 AM
I suspect a bruise, I'm afraid. There wouldn't be silver metal in a weight from this period. Pedestal ones are early.
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: stew2u2 on July 05, 2012, 02:49:57 PM
hi
i took it to a dealer friend of mine to have a look he says its not a bruise there are more silvery marks going down the dark coloured glass not as large as those but you can see them. if i look from the side they do look like flakes of something. i am tring to ask on the IOW blog but im still waiting for them to get back with password.
thanks
stew
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 05, 2012, 03:25:46 PM
Bruises do look like slivers and flakes from the side, I'm afraid.
Somebody recently mentioned the proper scientific name for these.....
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: KevinH on July 05, 2012, 04:12:23 PM
Internal silvery-looking flakes are more likely to be cracks than bruises.
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 05, 2012, 04:53:51 PM
The cracks that radiate out from a bruise ... ???
Looking a bit like the inside of an oyster shell - layers of slivery silvery rings?
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: KevinH on July 05, 2012, 06:21:01 PM
A surface bruise will usually result in concentric rings (Herzian ring cracks - as mentioned to us by Alan T. some while ago) around the main impact area. These can penetrate a fair distance below the surface and would appear as rings (but looking quite "silvery") rather than as "flakes".

From the look of the damage in the photo, it seems to me that there are no clear rings, but two "flakes" of somewhat irregular shape. That is why I thought it would have been an internal stress fracture.

But then I guess that "flaky" internal fractures could result from an external impact stress without leaving the usual concentric rings of a bruise.

Whatever the "damage" really is, I don't think it's just air bubbles.

Edited to add photo of what I call a "fairly typical bruise" (in an Antique Clichy weight).
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 06, 2012, 10:49:12 AM
I'm afraid I agree with your last sentence, Kev.
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: rosieposie on July 06, 2012, 01:55:55 PM
Could this possibly have been caused during the annealing process?  I realise it is signed, and would most probably be unlikely to have been signed had the fault been noticed,  but this is just a thought.
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: KevinH on July 06, 2012, 03:50:04 PM
What are so often called "annealing cracks" can occur well after the annealing process. Residual stresses may never be known until years later, when a shock of some form causes the reaction of a crack. And the shock can be sudden temperature change, especially hot to cold.
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: stew2u2 on July 06, 2012, 04:43:28 PM
some closer photo,s of the weight
Title: Re: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem
Post by: rosieposie on July 06, 2012, 04:53:23 PM
That's interesting Kevin, I remember having some glass on the windowsill that during a sunny day burned the wood on the sill....could this sort of situation cause glass to stress in the way that Stew's weight looks?