HLMass@aol.com on fri 12 jul 96
I have been doing cone 6 oxidation thus far but I am very interested in
venturing into cone 10 reduction. In perusing Axner's catalog I noticed a
raku kiln by Olympic that touts it is good for bisquing, cone 10 reduction
and raku work. Does anyone know anything about this kiln, good or bad, that
they could share with me? I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Heather Massey
HLMass
Wendy Hampton on mon 16 sep 96
Hi,
I am considering buying the Olympic Raku Kiln. It is made of soft firebrick
(not fiber) and raises on a pully system. It is also rated to fire to Cone
10.
Does anyone have any experience with this kiln. If so please let me know.
Thanks,
Wendy from Bainbridge Island, WA
Beth Wheeler on mon 23 sep 96
Hi Wendy,
We own two of them and they are working perfectly. We were used to the
fiber type on a pulley system that could be raised with one finger; so when
we saw how long it took to crank the Olympic open, we were very skeptical
that you could ever get good reduction - particularly on copper which needs
to get reduced fast. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the design
and the soft brick lining combine to keep the ware hot while you are raising
the top. We have been using ours for over a year - 24 resident potters and
raku classes as well.
Regards,
Beth Wheeler
The Potters Guild, Roswell, GA
At 11:58 PM 9/16/96 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi,
>I am considering buying the Olympic Raku Kiln. It is made of soft firebrick
>(not fiber) and raises on a pully system. It is also rated to fire to Cone
>10.
>Does anyone have any experience with this kiln. If so please let me know.
>Thanks,
>Wendy from Bainbridge Island, WA
>
Peter Atwood on fri 12 feb 99
Howdy All,
Lots of great stuff on the list lately- thanks to everyone
for all your interesting posts.
I was wondering if anyone has had experience with the
Olympic Raku kilns. You know the ones, they appeared
in many of their ads in Ceramics Monthly. These kilns
feature an electric kiln type body with gas burners
underneath and a handcrank mechanism for lifting the
body up and removing pieces. I understand that Olympic
makes a small and large model and I was told when I
called Olympic that the larger one has 7 cubic feet of
stacking space. 23" wide x 27" high.
Olympic claims that these kilns also fire to ^10 and
that you can easily control reduction and so forth.
Sounds great to me but here's our situation:
Our coop finds itself in a difficult time. We are trying
to get a permit for an existing fiber blanket raku kiln
and have met with great resistance from the Mass.
licensing board because it is a homemade appliance and
even though it is far superior in construction and
safety wise to what can be had off the shelf, they are
a bunch of pain in the butt anal retentive #@$% over
there in Boston. So we are looking at a commercial
alternative.
I must clarify that even though we've had problems
they may soon end since a mechanical engineer has
been found who can approve the plans and construction
and satisfy these jerks in Boston.
We would still like to have an additional Raku kiln and
the fact that this kiln high fires is very attractive
because we have been experiencing a huge influx of new
people at the coop and our tiny gas stoneware kiln is
booked for 3 months! I'll be lucky if I can get one
firing in per month for the next 3 months. Just having
another kiln to bisque in or do tests in would be a
godsend. Unfortunately, an electric kiln is out of
the question for a variety of reasons that I can't
get into here.
Our existing stoneware kiln only stacks 4.5 cubic feet
of ware so it is tiny indeed. One great advantage to it
though is that with such a small kiln one can afford to
be more experimental because it's just not that many pots.
In that respect it has been great but now we are really
in need of more kiln space.
Would the Olympic be a viable alternative or should we
keep saving for a bigger stoneware kiln? Naturally
funds are tight....
--Peter Atwood in Spring-like Western Mass where the snow
is almost gone. Just in time for more this weekend. Hmph.
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