Tuxton MEE-056 Meridian 5 3/4" Eggshell Embossed Swirl Rim China Saucer - 36/Case

Hi I'm Bill Burden, President of Tuxton China. Today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the difference between a glazed foot and an unglazed foot. A glazed foot is done in what they call a "two fire process." In other words, they take and form and finish a piece, put it into the kiln, fire it at a high temperature, bring it out, glaze it, put it back in the kiln again and fire at a lower temperature on pins -gives you a glazed foot. Single fire process, which is what Tuxton uses, is we take form, finish, and glaze the piece, and then it goes into the kiln and is fired just a single time at the high temperature. There's basically no difference between the durability of the pieces, just a different way to get to the same point. There's a popular misconception in the industry that a glazed foot will not scratch or mar another piece of china, which in fact is not true, it's just the opposite. An unglazed or polished foot will not scratch as much. The reason for that is glaze is, like we talked about in another video, glaze is basically a glass and if you look at it under a microscope you'll see that it's crystalline in structure and even though the glaze feels very smooth it's very abrasive. So what I'd look to do today is show you the difference so you can hear for yourself what happens when glaze rubs on glaze. What we've done is we've got two pieces here and I'm going to use the edge of one piece to simulate a glazed foot and rub this against the other piece. In doing so you're going to hear what happens (scratching noises). You can hear that glaze scratching and grinding against the other part of the glaze. Now what I'd like to do is take another plate, and this is using the unglazed or polished foot, rub that against the plate, and you'll see by the sound it tends to slide over the glaze and doesn't scratch nearly as much. What I showed you today was a little misconception about the difference between how a glazed foot and an unglazed or polished foot scratches another piece of china. As always, thank you for watching, we hope you found this information useful, and if you'd like to see our entire library of Foodservice China 101 videos check out our website and YouTube channel.

Hi I'm Bill Burden, President of Tuxton China. Today I'd like to talk to you about the three different chinaware bodies that we produce in our factory, as well as the different types of glazes we use on those bodies. We have three distinct bodies that we manufacture: Eggshell, Porcelain White, and AlumaTux. Each one of these bodies is produced using the same basic processes, fired at the same temperature, but they each have individual characteristics that set them apart from one another. The Eggshell body - standard body that's probably used in the majority of foodservice operations in the country - is made of four basic products: feldspar, ball clay, kaolin, and silica. This body is about a quarter of an inch thick, it's not translucent, and it gives you an extremely durable, kind of eggshell off-white colored body. Second body we produce is Porcelain White. This body is made with the same basic ingredients but those ingredients are of a higher quality, and so they give you a much whiter product. Because of that higher quality of product you're able to make a thinner, lighter body, but still have the same durability characteristics as thicker bodies. The last body we produce is what we call our AlumaTux. This is a high alumina body. In order to get a high alumina body, what we do is we remove some of the clay from the formula and we put in pure alumina oxide. Alumina oxide is a raw material that's found naturally occurring in most good china clays, but by adding additional alumina oxide into the body, you're able to produce a thinner body that's extremely durable. So these are the three bodies that we use, and all of these bodies go through the exact same rigorous testing procedures in our lab so that no matter which product you choose for your operation, you'll get a product that is consistent from month to month and year to year. Now that you know a little bit about the types of bodies that we produce here at Tuxton, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the glaze that we put on our various bodies. Glazes are made basically of silica and sand, and when that is fired to high temperature, it turns into a type of glass. And that glass is what gives chinaware its beautiful shine and allows you to showcase your food creations in a beautiful way. It also is non-porous, so from a sanitary standpoint it's what you want in a foodservice operation. How glazes are made is they're basically powders and you'll take those powders, mix them with water, grind them and blend them until they get to a homogeneous point, then that is applied to the unfired ceramic body, and then they're taken and dried again and that wet glaze now turns back into a powder again, and then you put it into the kiln and it's fired at around 2300 degrees, and as it goes up to that high temperature the glaze melts and becomes molten glass and solidifies to give you your china body. And once that happens, the glaze bonds with the ceramic body, and it will never ever come off or apart. What I'd like to show you now is some examples of the different types of glazes that we manufacture from our standard clear glaze which goes on all three of these bodies, the Eggshell, the Porcelain White, and the AlumaTux. This is the same basic clear glaze but it looks different because of the color of the body which we talked about a little while ago. We also have colored glazes that we put on, and this is an example of a colored glaze, this is Cayenne, and it's the same type of process as all the other glazes. We also have some new glazes we're just starting to work with. These are our artisan glazes or reactive glazes. So this is a new product that we're just coming out with this fall. Most importantly, all of our glazes are 100% lead free and pass all state and federal guidelines, so you never have to worry about any problems with your Tuxton china. As always, thank you for watching. We hope you found this information useful, and if you'd like to see our entire library of Foodservice 101 videos, check out our website and YouTube channel.