Glass clothes pins?

Looking at the cloths pins and seeing the deterioration in the wood it has me wondering about other materials.  Most years I have taken them in after every use but got lazy this year. These I inherieted from my mother and are really good quality.  Went and looked and the cheapest good ones I found was $22 for 10.  With freight they would be nearly $3 a pin.  Which brings me to the thinking.  Material that won't stain clothing, degrade in the weather or UV, etc.  First 3 thoughts were ceramic, stainless and glass.  

Ceramic I could certainly do.  Fairly easy to build molds to mass produce.  Shape the mold to roll out say 10 halves at a time in the mold.  Cut into individual pins and fire.  Guessing a little too fragile though even with a tougher glaze although it might surprise me.  Would have to plan for the shrink from firing the clay.

Stainless ideal other than cost.

Now glass got my attention.  Cheap material if recycling.  Love color of some of the blue and some of the green beer bottles so I think material is available.

I am familar with tempering, prince rupert drops and the nearly unbreakable beer glass out of east germany so I know it is possible to make really tough glass.  Can probably make molds by carefully welding various long pieces together so if can cut into individual halves with a knife while still hot after molding should be doable.  I know glass molds are supposed to be a bit hot but well within what can be done with common steel or possible even cast brass giving another possible method to build molds.(clay positive to brass negative to glass positive.)

Good springs good stainless cloths pin springs

Tempered glass is just fast cooling the glass at the right rate.  Tough and shatters into small pieces that are mostly harmless if broken.  Sort of the ultimate version is below.

Prince Rupert drops.  Notice if you avoid the tail you can hit it with a hammer and not hurt it. ( it will actually dent the steel hammer)  Here is a good video on them.

prince rupert drop.

That brings us to the unbreakable beer glasses.  Brand name Superfest.
unbreakable beer glass.

The process is to heat the glass near molten and soak it in a potassium solution so the sodium in the glass exchanges ions with the potassium for chemically strengthened glass that is very hard to break.  Adds another question in colored glass would it change the color?  Brings up one other thought about being able to find them in the dark.  Uranium glass and UV?

Has me toying with trying at the personal level and mildly thinking at the business level.  So if good quality wood cloths pins are at least $2 each and probably $3 each would you be interested in a glass version if durable and if so what price point?  Assume nearly unbreakable some direction or combination of directions.  First generation would probably be common beer bottle colors.  

With radiator shop tools I have, I am fairly sure I can melt the glass.  Quick google says propane / air will melt lime/soda glass and the big bell torch does 150,000 BTU's.  Welding the molds up would be a pain but I think is doable.  A bunch of pieces of small shafting, key stock and bar stock welded together to shape the mold.  A series of cross cuts in it for a knife to follow to cut individual halves out of the molded long half blank.  What am I missing?

C. Letellier wrote: What am I missing?

That Lee Valley tools sells the stainless ones 20 for $32.50 Canadian (and our dollar is worth much less than the US dollar, which should cover the taxes if they don't have any USA outlets.)

There's at least 1 other US permie who has a source at a reasonable cost that I recall is Continental USA based.

These really do last and do their job well. I suspect the time needed getting them the right size for the commercial springs, will be uneconomical unless you really can turn it into a business.

Knowing how good I am at dropping things like clothespins, I would be pretty cautious about buying glass ones myself.

That said, the need for practical objects that can be upcycled from old bottles is huge. Other than buildings which can absorb huge numbers, most upcycling projects are calling for less than a few hundred bottles. But how many bottles would it take to make 20 glass clothespins, do you think?

(If there was some way to make it practical, upcycling glass into roof tiles, might be environmentally sound?)

Lee valley has a US website, still $32.50 usd/20. But they are Italian made and by all appearances a multi generational product.

There are lots of clamps made for woodworking and industry that make wonderful clothespins for large or heavy items like jeans and sheets. Most are chrome plated with soft rubber pads but some are stainless.

My wooden clothes pins have lasted for many years.  They are probably older then some of the folks who post to this forum.

My secret is that I bring them inside and do not leave them on the line.

My thoughts on glass or ceramic clothes pin is that they might easily get broken and be potential risk to my health  NO way ...

i saw a glass clothespin on instagram.... https://www.instagram.com/p/DKCzP8pNuIY/?img_index=2
it's an interesting idea (and sounds beautiful), although it frankly sounds way outside my price range (considering i can get good wooden clothespins very cheap-- but since I keep them enclosed when they're not in use they also last forever).

Tereza Okava wrote:i saw a glass clothespin on instagram....

OK, that's really cool. The writing suggests it was cut out of thick glass, rather than molded.

That clear and one might still loose them in the grass! (Particularly long permie grass!) I like C. Letellier's idea of using coloured glass.

C. if you're making a mold anyway, would you be able to make one side green and the other brown? That would be cool!

For the experimental aspect alone, this project has caught my interest. Please post updates if you get started on it?

C. Letellier, that link to the prince rupet drop is amazing, thanks.