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kilns, clay times, objective reporting

updated thu 31 jul 97

 

Art Powell on fri 11 jul 97

Looking forward to the day when I shall need another kiln, I was
immediately attracted to an article on cone six reduction firing
in a 10 cubic foot updraft kiln in the May/June issue of Clay
Times. This was my first look at this magazine.

I also noticed near the end of the article there were adverts
for the two manufacturers of the kilns mentioned in the article
- Olympic and Aim. Rereading the article one thinks it could
have been written by the advertising writers for Olympic.

This leaves me with some questions:

- are there other manufacturers of similar kilns?

- is it practical to build this type of kiln oneself?

- what problems are associated with these kilns?

- can we rely on Clay Times for objective reporting?

Art Powell,
Black Bear Pottery,
Kitamaat Village, B.C.
apowell@yellowhead16.net

Harvey Sadow on sun 13 jul 97

Hi Art,

I can't say anything about the reliability of Clay Times specifically,
but I will say this for Olympic Kilns. They make good products. I have
rehabbed a few, and was amazed at how well the worked with a minimum of
effort. Recently I suggested to someone on the list that they contact
Olympic relative to a problem they were having in Atlanta. Olympic is
in Atlanta and I received a reply from the person who had posted the
request for help saying that he did indeed contact Olympic, the owner of
the company came and found a minor glitch in a minute and fixed it.
their kiln works fine and he is now as impressed with the people at
Olympic as I am. They didn't pay me a nickel to say that, either!

Harvey Sadow

Brigita Smits on sun 13 jul 97

Art, you mentioned ClayTimes in your post on reduction. I have
misplaced my copy of an issue that came out in the spring and had a
recipe (two ingredients if I remember, one is soda ash) for a
terrasigilatta. Would be so grateful if you could forward it to me. Am
doing some work with saw dust/organic materials firing in a small gas
kiln and would really like to try the recipe. Thanks much, Brigita

bsmits@earthlink.net
Boston

stevemills on tue 15 jul 97

We've had two Olympics since 1979 & 1981 respectively and we think
they're bulletproof. The are firing flat out most weeks and always have
done.
Steve.

In message , Harvey Sadow writes
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi Art,
>
>I can't say anything about the reliability of Clay Times specifically,
>but I will say this for Olympic Kilns. They make good products. I have
>rehabbed a few, and was amazed at how well the worked with a minimum of
>effort. Recently I suggested to someone on the list that they contact
>Olympic relative to a problem they were having in Atlanta. Olympic is
>in Atlanta and I received a reply from the person who had posted the
>request for help saying that he did indeed contact Olympic, the owner of
>the company came and found a minor glitch in a minute and fixed it.
>their kiln works fine and he is now as impressed with the people at
>Olympic as I am. They didn't pay me a nickel to say that, either!
>
>Harvey Sadow
>

--
Steve Mills
@Bath Potters Supplies
Dorset Close
Bath
BA2 3RF
UK
Tel:(44) (0)1225 337046
Fax:(44) (0)1225 462712