Annealing thin borosilicate rods safe to skip?

[thecrystalglow]

I was at a local torch workshop experimenting with borosilicate rods when I noticed some of the thinner rods were cut and used without going through the annealing process. Is it actually safe to skip annealing for these small-diameter rods, or does it depend on whether they'll be part of larger pieces later on?

 

[Crosser]

Are you planning to use those thinner rods as finished standalone pieces, or will they eventually be fused into larger borosilicate projects?

 

[Jiang]

that’s actually a really common question when working with small-diameter borosilicate rods. For quick experiments or simple test pulls, it’s generally okay to skip annealing if the rods are very thin (say 2–4 mm) and not being fused into larger pieces.