Repairing hairline cracks.

I found this in a magazine today. Has anyone tried it? Goes like this: To make a slight crack in a china item diappear, place it in a pan and cover with Carnation Evaporated Milk, then bring to a boil and simmer for 25 minutes at low heat. In most cases, teh crack will vanish.

Years ago in a bidding frenzy I paid $400 for a green Luau Hut (looks like a monkey mug). It was perfect for a year and then a spontaneous hairline just appeared. It would be great to have it healed again. I think I try this on a cheap mug first. Wendy

I bet the milk might hide (not repair) a hairline crack in white porcelain china, but it wouldn't work on anything colored or glazed.

If you try it, let us know what happens.

I have been toying with this for a few months trying to repair a tucson ce headhunter mug(OoH R-1) found in Indiana and an old daga. Both have large cracks, I have been working in the low fire range and find that most of the glazes seem to be low fire(definitly cheaper for mass production costs less fuel shorter firing times). The large cracks I have been trying to fill with a white earthenware clay, I would like to use a tile clay because it has a very low shrinkage rate and would seem to fill better but haven't the money yet to get something just for two or three mugs. I then paint a coat of glaze over the work and fire to 05 or 06. Three try and the headhunter is fixed, but the color is not quite a match along the crack as I used clear to fix. The daga is definitly something of a mystery because at 05 it is bubbling. So i plan to put it in an 06 or 08 firing first with my bisque then maybe a hotter firing to see what happens if that doesn't work. The couple of hairlines are just clear coated lightly and fired. Broken pieces have been fun projects also my mai kai bowl that took a big fall has been partially repaired one of the tikis looks just vicious(the crazing was repainted with an amaco low fire glaze and is a great match). This is just my feelings and tests on the subject, a cracked mug I find in the wild will be repaired and saved for cocktails in the future(just remember always fire glazes to maturing temps please).