Can Iron stamped Items be filled with Synthetic Enamel?
2002-10-08
Yes, but there are several strong technical aspects that make the process of combining Iron and Synthetic Enamel very costly and fairly incompatible.
First, Iron is the cheapest material and is commonly used to get a product of a lower quality at a inexpensive price. On the other hand, Synthetic Enamel is the colouring material of the highest quality. Obviously, the combination of the two is contradictory.
Secondly, let's focus on the technical aspects:
On one hand, Iron is a very dense material. As moulds used to process stamping are made in high tensile steal, it is very easy to damage the mould during process. As a consequence, iron cannot be stamped very deeply at risk of damaging the mould.
On the other hand, Synthetic Enamel requires deeper recess. The deeper, the better. Why? Because the polishing process is different from Soft Enamel. Items processed with Synthetic Enamel are polished with stone. Polishing with stone gives the shiny aspect and levels the colors with the "cloisons" (Cloisonne) to make them even by removing the excess paint. For this reason, the use of Synthetic Enamel requires heavy stamping.
Finally, polishing items coloured with Synthetic Enamel requires rinsing with water to remove particles and protect the item from heating. As a result, the iron tends to rust and give unsatisfactory results.
