Karl P. Platt on wed 8 oct 97
Propane/Butane as a fuel can produce any result required from a firing.
Whether or not a given result is obtained depends more on the combustion
hardware and one's ability to use it than the fuel itself -- remember the
Chinese Cu red glazes were fired with solid fuels in very elemental kilns.
As a testament to its capacity, there's a tile plant a bit north of here
making 10 million square feet/month of floor & wall tile doing a 35 minute
fast-fire in roller hearth kilns fired by propane/butane. Atmosphere
control in this operation must be absolute and firing losses in this
operation are some fraction of a percent. This is only to say that propane
is a fine fuel.
Louis Katz on fri 10 oct 97
Speaking from my limited expereince with Cone Ten Stoneware reduction with
propane, it works well. If you are used to natural gas and you fire without
atmosphere meters such as oxyprobes, it will take a little adjustment. The
yellow flame tips are not pronounced when reducing with propane, and signs
of reduction seem a bit harder to see. I found the sticking a splinter of
wood in the top spy test better than gauging reduction by flame color with
propane.
Dave Shaner built a kiln at the Archie Bray Foundation to fire with propane
in the sixties or early seventies (I think). He built it even thought the
Bray had cheap natural gas. He felt that some of the glazes were being
adversely affected by sulphur in the natuaral gas. It has since been
switched back to natural gas.
Safety with propane is a much greater concern than with natural gas.
Propane settles and can hug the ground when it leaks from plumbing. It is
much easier to create an explosion with propane as it is explosive in a
wide range of mixtures than natural gas.
Propane tanks must be stored away from heat and flame. I am sure that my
statistics are too limited to be of any real use, but the only deaths from
house fires(during the ten years before and including the year I was there)
in the fire district where I lived in Rhode Island and was a volunteer
fireman, had propane involvement. The two house fires started from leaks in
plumbing if I remember correctly. I am not paranoid about propane, but I
careful with plumbing .
Louis
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