Rutile Pigment/Ore, Titanium Dioxide/Ore- (Free Shipping On Orders 35.00 Or More!)

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Please note this is a raw pigment intended to be dispersed into a liquid medium to make paints. Our raw pigments are not meant for use in cosmetics and are not cosmetic grade. Certain pigments disperse more easily than others in certain liquid mediums. For those difficult to disperse into a liquid of your choice, they will need to be ground by a muller or a mortar and pestle into the medium.

Safety note: Handle all dry pigments with care. Work slowly to avoid generating airborne dust and wear a dust mask for extra protection. Also avoid getting the dust all over your hands. Latex gloves are good at providing skin protection without "getting in the way".

Rutile is basically titanium dioxide (which purified is a strong white pigment) with iron, yielding a tan colorant. You could call it an "economy titanium dioxide" since it's less expensive than the purified white titanium dioxide. If you need a titanium dioxide with a tan or off red or orange you could use all or at least some of rutile to substitute for white titanium dioxide.
Rutile is a titanium ore with several other uses. In the arts it's used in ceramics as a colorant and texturizing additive in glazes. As mentioned above it also makes a fine paint pigment with good dispersion and great hiding power. It can also be used in resin as a pigment and opacifier because of it's hiding power. Purified, it becomes the high refractive index, bright white pigment that's widely used in everything from shoe polish to toothpaste, and of course white paint.
This was purchased from a ceramics supplier and it is also a light tan so it is almost surely calcined (which solves pinholing and other problems which can occur in glazes with non-calcined rutile). Uncalcined rutile is a darker, brownish color.

The Digital Fire ceramics resource has a great article on it:
{ https://digitalfire.com/4sight/material/rutile_1204.html } :
"Rutile is the mineral name for natural crystals of titanium dioxide. However in nature rutile is always contaminated by up to 15% other minerals (especially iron but also things like tantalum, niobium, chromium and tin)...The term 'rutile' is thus generally understood to refer to the brown powder into which these minerals are ground and industry accepts up to 15% contaminants and yet still calls it rutile (below 85% titanium is called ilmenite). Rutile is considered an impure form of titanium whereas ilmenite is considered as FeTiO3... Rutile is used in many industries (e.g. welding rods, paint) and ceramic uses are minor in comparison...
Rutile is available in light tan calcined ceramic grade powder, darker uncalcined powder, and granular form. Either grade of powder is normally ground very fine (e.g. 325 mesh). In glazes it is generally thought to be better to use the ceramic grade (calcined) since the decomposition of raw rutile during firing could be a source of glaze imperfections like pinholing and bubbles....
Rutile produces many crystalline, speckling, streaking, and mottling effects in glazes during cooling in the kiln and has been used in all types of colored glazes to enhance the surface character. It is thus highly prized by potters, many attractive variegated glazes are made using it. Many potters would say that their living depends on their rutile supply!...
Rutile is very refractory in oxidation, even a mix of 50% borax alumina-free frit like Ferro 3134 will not melt rutile in a crucible. In reduction, the improvement in melting will depend on the amount of iron present.
In ceramic glazes rutile is more often considered a variegator than a colorant. As little as 2% can impart significant effects in stoneware glazes. It is normally used in combination with a wide range of metal oxide and stain colorants to produce surfaces that are much more visually interesting. In glazes with high melt fluidity (e.g. having high boron), large amounts of rutile (e.g. 6-8%) can be quite stunning. The rutile encourages the development of micro-crystals (it is crystalline itself) and rivulets. Since rutile contains significant iron its use in combination with other colorants will often muddy the color that they would otherwise have or alter it if they are sensitive to the presence of iron. Even though rutile generally makes up less than 5% of stoneware glazes that employ it, they are often called 'rutile glazes' in recognition of its dramatic contribution...
In glazes rutile can be quite sensitive to the presence of opacifiers. While an unopacified glaze glaze might appear quite stunning, the addition of a zircon opacifier will usually drastically alter its appearance and interest because the variegation imparted is dependent on the glaze having depth and transparency or translucency. Strangely rutile and tin, another opacifier, can produce some very interesting reactions and it is quite common to see tin in amounts of up to 4% in rutile glazes. In these cases the tin appears to react in the crystal formation rather than opacify the glaze.
Rutile powder, although its color makes it appear to be a very crude ground mineral, normally contains 90%+ titanium dioxide...
The mineralogy and significant other impurities in rutile are a major factor in the way it acts in glazes and are not easily duplicated using a blend of other things...
Granular rutile is sometimes used in bodies and glazes to impart fired speckle."

A processer of rutile, Tronox, says rutile "...is predominantly used as a feedstock for the manufacture of Titanium Dioxide pigment and as an ingredient for the flux used in the production of stick and wire based welding electrodes. Other applications are the manufacture of asbestos free brake pads, ceramic glaze for roofing tiles and the production of ferrotitanium. Rutile can also be a primary feedstock for the production of titanium metal...."

Synthetic rutile is fairly common and may be what this listing is, the supplier doesn't say. The Cameo art and restoration materials database has an informative article on titanium dioxide which describes the connection between it and rutile. The article and an excerpt is here:
http://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide
"Titanium dioxide occurs naturally in three crystalline forms: anatase, rutile and brookite, with rutile being the most abundant. In mineral form, titanium dioxide is often deeply coloured due to elemental impurities. Ground mineral rutile found some use as a colored pigment, but difficulties in grinding result in coarse particles with a different morphology than that of synthetic material. Naturally occurring anatase and brookite are not used for pigment manufacture. Both anatase and rutile have been synthesized since the early 20th century for use as white pigments....in applications including: colorants and opacifiers in paints, pastels, inks, enamels, ceramics, glass, rubber and plastics; fillers and coatings in book, fine and photographic paper; and as coatings, delustrants and surface treatments in the textile and leather industries. They are nontoxic and can be used in foods and pharmaceuticals; their ultraviolet absorption properties have led to applications in sunscreen and lotions. Titanium dioxide is also used as a white reference material in many instruments for optical measurements or color spectrometry. Rutile can be made into synthetic gemstones of varying color and has use as a coating in the manufacture of welding rods."
That excerpt implies that when used as a paint pigment the synthetic version is easier to grind to a sufficiently fine particle size, so it's likely this rutile is synthetic instead of natural.

The Wiki article and an excerpt on rutile is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutile
"Natural rutile may contain up to 10% iron and significant amounts of niobium and tantalum. Rutile derives its name from the Latin rutilus, red, in reference to the deep red color observed in some specimens when viewed by transmitted light....Rutile has one of the highest refractive indices at visible wavelengths of any known crystal and also exhibits a particularly large birefringence and high dispersion. Owing to these properties, it is useful for the manufacture of certain optical elements, especially polarization optics.....In large enough quantities in beach sands, rutile forms an important constituent of heavy minerals and ore deposits. Miners extract and separate the valuable minerals – e.g., rutile, zircon, and ilmenite. The main uses for rutile are the manufacture of refractory ceramic, as a pigment, and for the production of titanium metal......Finely powdered [processed] rutile is a brilliant white pigment and is used in paints, plastics, paper, foods, and other applications that call for a bright white color. Titanium dioxide pigment is the single greatest use of titanium worldwide."-

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Reviews

Reviews (8)

Average:

Jun 5, 2023

Great product! Superior customer service!

Brenda Moorman

Jun 2, 2023

Wolf Segal

May 13, 2023

Austin Soboleski

Mar 8, 2023

Item as described and quickly shipped.

Wolf Segal

Oct 20, 2022

Excellent shop, excellent items. I am very happy.

Cristina Mazzoni