Gaiwan & Porcelain Cups - Have lead issues?

[t4texas]

Oh and dont forget where your dinner plates, glasses, possibly silver ware, clothes, toothbrushes, pens and everything else you use everyday come from china too. What makes them different from tea ware?

Uh...you can't brew tea in them?

I think what shogun is getting at is that how do you know anything that you have, in this case made in china, is safe and lead free? You have just as much risk (if not more) of being exposed to something even remotely harmful as you do with yixing pots/tea ware that may be tainted.

Guess I should have used a smilie.

[shogun89]

Yep, Polyhymnianmuse got it.

[t4texas]

Uncle! It was humor...maybe a lame attempt at humor, but humor.

[shogun89]

Uncle! It was humor...maybe a lame attempt at humor, but humor.

Oh I know. I understood it, Its all good.

[teaguy]

I mentioned your question about lead to an expert on such things here in Taiwan. He pointed out that most glazed teaware is fired at around 1200 C, which is more than adequate to remove any lead traces in the finish (anything over 100-150 C does the trick).

When checking the teaware, the shinier the finish and the higher 'ping' (be very careful doing that, by the way) when you tap the lid to the cup, the higher the firing temperature.

If you get something with cloisonne or inlays on the outside, there may be more of an issue, but as long as it's not on the INSIDE of the cup, you're not in too much danger.

Hope that helps.

[Woots]

I mentioned your question about lead to an expert on such things here in Taiwan. He pointed out that most glazed teaware is fired at around 1200 C, which is more than adequate to remove any lead traces in the finish (anything over 100-150 C does the trick).

When checking the teaware, the shinier the finish and the higher 'ping' (be very careful doing that, by the way) when you tap the lid to the cup, the higher the firing temperature.

If you get something with cloisonne or inlays on the outside, there may be more of an issue, but as long as it's not on the INSIDE of the cup, you're not in too much danger.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for asking about that question for me some interesting facts there.
I am still in deciding process to get some nice porcelain teaware. Interesting note about the higher the ping sound the higher the firing temp (not something i knew). I always thought that had to do with the quality of the materials being used (density or consistency). I suppose the higher the temp of firing the more things meld together internally so I guess they would get denser.