Working With Antimony Options

Does anyone have experience working with glass of antimony? I am not very experienced with alchemy, but I am just interested in producing the glass for talismans and evocation work (or at least test claims by J. Lisiewski that it works). I recently obtained some antimony trioxide and have had some difficulty working with it.

I first tried a small amount in my furnace at 1500 degrees f. as this is the temp. that antimoy trioxide is supposed to melt at 1200, and it fumed away. It turned orange as it fumed and left a small orange clump that was not glass.

I then tried using my torch, which uses mapp gas and oxygen. Because it fumed away the first time, I tried a mixture of borax and antimony trioxide, 1:1. I heated the mixture in a small crucible, think button sized, and poured a few drops that came out clear. I then tried the same process using a slightly bigger crucible. The problem was the top portion would vitrify(?) but it would remain a powder underneath as the top was heated.

Last, I tried a mixture of borax and antimony trioxide, 5:1. I placed a layer of it within a small circular iron dish, about 2 inches diameter. I heated the layer, which took a long time, which bubbled up then became glass. I then added more powder and continued heating till I had the entire dish bottom filled with molten glass. I placed it in the furnace to let it cool slowly, but it cracked anyways. I did the same process again, re-melting the cracked glass with some more of the mixture. Once again, as it cooled, it developed multiple fractures. I managed to glue them together as I have nothing else to do with broken glass. Oddly, this final piece was of a grey/blue/black color.

The next thing I will try is heating up my furnace to the max, 2100 f., which takes a long time and try using a graphite crucible with enough pure antimony that some glass will form even if it fumes away a bit. This seems like the best idea from the beginning, but with it fuming away in my first test it has me wondering if this will be hot enough.

I have a copy of the Triumphal Chariot, and all it really says is to heat it unless I missed something. If anyone has any experiences I'd like to hear them. I'm tempted to use the glued together antimony disk for a talisman as it doesn't look shoddy.

For anyone interested, here is a brief note. I have a scholarly critical edition of "Basil Valentine, His Triumphant Chariot of Antimony" by L.G. Kelly (with annotations of Theodore Kirkringius 1678 ) so it has a footnote that may not be in other editions.

pg 60. footnote 83 "According to J.W. Mellor,Chemistry, IX:577, this is not quite as pure as Basil thinks: a yellow glass has 100 parts of antimony trioxide to 3.35 of antimony trisulphide, and as the proportion of the trisulphide increased it becomes an orange-red."
*This footnote is made to the claim that the yellow transparent glass of antimony made is "Pure Glass of Antimony".

Now I have a guideline to follow for just how much of the sulphide is needed, and one of the factors in the color produced.