Claudia MacPhee on mon 28 may 07
Just came in from opening my wood kiln after it's maiden voyage. What fun! Did a 2 hr campfire preheat from 10-12pm the night before I started, then got up at 4:30am to a nice warm soot filled kiln. Both times I started the fires they took right off, no smoking, the chimney drew perfectly! (I had visions of a real smoke-fest until it warmed up). Had a few minor disasters with various jury-rigged parts...like running out of cut wood at 6pm and having to chainsaw up slabs between stokes...thank goodness for the Bourry box. Finished up at 12pm.
Can't wait to do it again. Cone 11 was flat as a pancake at the front, only 6 at the back. Guess I'll have to sidestoke the next time. The best thing is that there are a million things you can try and do diffrently the next time. Opens up endless possibities for experimentation.
Thanks to everyone who gave me building advice.
Claudia MacPhee, Tagish, Yukon -trying to think of a nice name for my kiln.
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Paul Herman on tue 29 may 07
Hi Claudia,
I love brown pots too!
Congratulations on your new kiln. If you melted cone 11 on the first
try, I declare the firing to be a success. After a couple of firings,
and as you get to know your kiln, I'm sure you can get the back up to
temp. Do you have side stoke holes built in already?
It's always encouraging to hear about a new wood firing kiln going
into production. It's the old technology, but one we can practice
while using locally available resources. It looks like the wave of
the future. This summer, I hope to start building my alternative fuel
experimental kiln, to be fired by burning the Nevada state flower,
sagebrush. We've got plenty of that around here.
What kind of wood did you use, and how often do you stoke the beastie?
Bon feu,
Paul Herman
Great Basin Pottery
Doyle, California US
http://greatbasinpottery.com
On May 28, 2007, at 8:47 PM, Claudia MacPhee wrote:
> Just came in from opening my wood kiln after it's maiden
> voyage. What fun! Did a 2 hr campfire preheat from 10-12pm the
> night before I started, then got up at 4:30am to a nice warm soot
> filled kiln. Both times I started the fires they took right off, no
> smoking, the chimney drew perfectly! (I had visions of a real smoke-
> fest until it warmed up). Had a few minor disasters with various
> jury-rigged parts...like running out of cut wood at 6pm and having
> to chainsaw up slabs between stokes...thank goodness for the Bourry
> box. Finished up at 12pm.
> Can't wait to do it again. Cone 11 was flat as a pancake at the
> front, only 6 at the back. Guess I'll have to sidestoke the next
> time. The best thing is that there are a million things you can try
> and do diffrently the next time. Opens up endless possibities for
> experimentation.
> Thanks to everyone who gave me building advice.
>
> Claudia MacPhee, Tagish, Yukon -trying to think of a nice name for
> my kiln.
Claudia MacPhee on tue 29 may 07
Paul, I used white spruce and pine slabs with a smattering of old willow to fire. Couldn't get into the pine slab pile yet as the road is still too muddy after all the snow we had this winter. Actually I think they are mostly white spruce, not my favorite wood. Burns too fast and not as many BTU's as the pine. But I didn't want to wait any longer!! Actually the worst thing was the 30 km/hr wind that came up half way through. Started to get the fear of starting a bush fire. After all my years in the volunteer fire dept this would not be too cool.
I have sidestoke holes, but wanted to see what it would do without using them. Think I will just refire the pieces from the back. Some glazes turned out really ugly too. Also need to play with the stacking, plus a ton of other things.
When I started the fire I just pulled up a chair and fed it every couple of minutes. Toward the middle, once I went to the hobs, it was every 10 to 20 minutes. I was very conservative on the amount of wood I piled on. Think I could have put more on and longer between each one. Also that spruce evaporates even in my home stoves. If I have a choice usually I avoid it. Can't wait to try the kiln with some logs and the heavy pine slabs. Around here I am severely limited in my wood choice. Too dry for birch, there is aspen, willow (that is the hottest), lodgepole pine and white spruce. What design are you using for the sagebrush kiln?
Thanks for all the encouragement, Claudia MacPhee, Tagish, Yukon
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