Description

Synthetic Red Iron Oxide

Synthetic red iron oxide is the most common colorant in ceramics and has the highest amount of iron. It is available commercially as a soft and very fine powder made by grinding ore material or heat processing ferrous/ferric sulphate or ferric hydroxide. During firing all irons normally decompose and produce similar colors in glazes and clay bodies (although they have differing amounts of Fe metal per gram of powder). Red iron oxide is available in many different shades from a bright light red at a deep red maroon, these are normally designated by a scale from about 120-180 (this number designation should be on the bags from the manufacturer, darker colors are higher numbers), however in ceramics these different grades should all fire to a similar temperature since they have the same amount iron. The different raw colors are a product of the degree of grinding.