Depends on what you're eating I guess. Meatloaf, sure. Metal shavings, probably not.

well, yes... and I suspect my world-famous ecoli and salimonella pie would be out of the question, too. I just wondered if the paint/glaze is toxic.

You should be able to get lead testing kits.

Generally you don't want to eat off of fired clay that was produced in China or Mexico; they tend to use glazes with lead in them.

I've got several awesome bowls and mugs that aren't safe for humans to use, so I have to just keep 'em on the shelf.

thanks, I'll remember that, and pick up a lead test kit before garage sale season.

I just dream of a dinner party where the plates feature a dead president, barbie, the star ship enterprise, a pro athlete of some kind, and maybe elvis.

Easyriders magazine had a collectors plate featuring a pirate, a cowboy, a fighter pilot, and an outlaw biker in a montage. That may be the best plate ever.

Very bright orange fiesta ware made decades ago used uranium salts for color. The glaze is a gamma and beta emitter, so eating off of it is not a good idea. Most of it is out of circulation by now, but, y'know.

I dunno, Triode - would eating off of them be any worse than just having them around in front of you for an hour or two?

Yeah, it'll emit gamma and beta particles, but it wouldn't cause your food to do the same (the food goes inside of you and parts of it gets incorporated into you).

I think the idea is the beta particles would be ingested along with the food. Beta doesn't penetrate well, but it packs a mutagenic wallop. Another page mentions that the real trouble lies in the chemical toxicity of the uranium itself, ingested in small quantities. Either way - I don't need any additional exposure - I've already picked up enough Thorium dust by sharpening welding electrodes.

Most collectors plates aren't meant for food service use. Same goes for a lot of art glass and art ceramics.

If in doubt, test it for lead. But lead isn't the only hazard to worry about, as the Fiestaware incident is famous for.

In collectors plates I'd also worry about the pigments used, any varnishes or glazes used, treatments, metals, etchings, etc. They were never, ever manufactured with food use in mind.

And I've seen a couple of shops where they made these kind of crappy ceramic or cold-cast epoxy knick knacks, collectors plates, figurines and the like.

None of them were clean, or even anything remotely like even a half-assed stoneware or china shop. None of them used anything resembling food grade construction or decoration materials.

Also, along the same lines, you should avoid using cracked, chipped, scratched, gouged or crackled glazed ceramics (or embedded, colored glass, or even 'leaded' crystal glass for that matter) with food.

Once the glass/silica fusion layer is degraded or broken, it opens up whatever primary glaze or pigment that was used to direct contact with food.

If it's modern ceramics, you're probably safe, but any thrift store or garage sale finds should be considered suspect until properly tested.

A clear coat of epoxy (when cured, it's food safe)should solve all the problems except for the Cobalt-60 glaze. But that is easily spotted by blue glow in the dark.

I've had the same idea for years and so far have collected... one plate. A very '70s and garish yet happy one, though.

USED RESTAURANT SUPPLY SHOPS!

(The restaurant supplies they sell are used, not necessarilly the shops ;-) Restaurants come and go constantly & quickly so there's probably one in your area. Plates are usually thick, well-glazed and fired to take a lifetime of abuse.)