Western 5th........

[caldigs]

We just dug a good old western 5th, but when you look at it in direct light at certain angles it looks like the surface of the glass has thousands of small cracks/scratches. What exactyl is this, and does it affect the stability of the bottle ? Would sunlight possibly make the bottle crack ?

thanks

 

[GuntherHess]

Are the actually cracks that go into the glass or surface etching?
Any way you could get a photo of it?

 

[caldigs]

Here are two photos. Notice how in one photo you can see the crackling look, but when you turn the bottle a different angle to the light, you can't see it. Weird. They are not cracks, more like etching.

 

[Leisalu]

I see you found out where I've been digging. What your bottle has are UV cracks from exposure to sunlight. Certain Western blown glass will react like this and it can happen in just a matter of minutes once a bottle is exposed to dircet sunlight. I'd be careful not to bump this bottle or put it through any kind of a slight
temperature change becuse glass with uv cracks is highly unstable. NEVER should Western glass be exposed to direct sunlight for just this reason.

 

[caldigs]

It may be where you are diggign.......but probably not! It was wrapped in a towel and went straight to the car after it was dug, dont know how this happened, but I do remember seeing another 5th a while ago come out of the ground and look like that before it saw light.

 

[Leisalu]

If it wasn't exposed to direct sunlight after it was dug then it was at some point before it was tossed in the privy. I've seen a few other TKs that had this same kind of uv crazing. You'll see this now and then in Western blown glass that was produced from about 1870 to 1885. It is not to be confused with the kind of anealing cracks/crazing often seen in 1860s Western glass.

 

[deepwoods]

Digging a good bottle: second only to women for causing falling outs between buddies, in my experience.

 

[GuntherHess]

Looks like some type of annealing damage to me. If so, the bottle is probably more fragile than a normal bottle since it didnt undergo proper annealing, not to meantion the micro fractures.

 

[GuntherHess]

...could be an etching effect too i guess. The surface does look etched some in the photo. Its so hard to tell without holding stuff in your hands...

 

[caldigs]

Thanks for the info guys, I was mostly curious about the stability of the glass.