Paul Haigh on mon 26 nov 07
Thanks for all the personal emails wishing me well on my first firing of my new woodkiln. It was a great weekend; there were potters, and family stopping in. My incredible wife just kept cooking and every time she came outside she had a plate of brownies or lasagna or something that she made (maybe I'll keep her :).
A couple of people asked me to keep them posted. It ate over a cord of wood (going for woodfired effect here), with some unevenness top to bottom. Looking in at the end I could see pots up front with orange peel effect and such- very excititng. Most of the load was once-fired.
Lessons learned:
OK- when you're planning a woodfire- make sure that helpers can be there. Being the weekend of Black Friday, and some of the folks being college students that work retail or people having professional pottery sales ... well... it made for long days. By the end of the 30 hour firing yesterday my body had the stature of our leftover stuffing. One of the guys with pots in the kiln took a shift, but I only slept an hour and a half Saturday night.
The kiln is a 40 cu ft. cat arch. I had no idea how much stuff makes up 40 cu. ft unstacked... we had a light load.
The firebox is a Bourry. I started to learn to watch what it wants. At the end of the firing (after struggling like heck sidestoking like a madman to get the temp up on the top), I opened the air to clean out the last charge and coals- and the *&^% temp rose. Those conditions were actually closer to what Harrison suggests in his Laid Back Woodfire book- That approach worked for some of the firing, then it wanted a full firebox and all air closed off, and evidently it wanted that at the end as well.
The major issue- At the end of the firing, the top was colder. I dropped cone 11 in the bottom, cone 11 was about 90 degrees bent on the door side top, and cone ten just had a back problem on the other side top. There's no target brick or bagwall- just flat across. I underestimated how many big pots I should choke up the front of the lower shelves with, and being a light load- I didn't have as many pots as I could have used to crowd up the lower part. I should have loaded some bricks in there to deflect flame up and reduce flow through the bottom 2 shelves.
Well- no way to tell how it REALLY went until I unload on Saturday, but I feel like I learned a lot on this one. Now I understand a bit better all of those accounts and posts about what the first firing of a new kiln teaches you. This one has a definite personality.
Thanks for the advice here, and to Alicia, who drove 2 hours each way to put in some pots and time over the weekend. I'll put up some pics of the firing and pots after we unload.
Diane Quammen on tue 27 nov 07
I can't imagine your delight. Hope everything was wonderful at the opening.
Though my experience can't compare to yours, I just had the first glaze
firing in my old Skutt with my new KilnMaster Controller. I was so excited!
I went out to the kiln every half hour just to check the temperature and the
ramp. When I opened the kiln, I I was thrilled to find the cones all bending
to about the same angle and ware on the top and bottom shelves looking like
that on the middle ones. Now I have to tweak the firing program and some of
my glazes. Just wish I had more work bisqued so I could glaze fire again
right now!
Thanks to everyone for all the advice I found in the archives. What a great
resource!
Diane Quammen
Powder Springs, GA
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:27:18 +0000
> From: Paul Haigh
> Subject: Re:First fire in new kiln- delerium
>
> Thanks for all the personal emails wishing me well on my first firing of
> my new woodkiln. It was a great weekend; there were potters, and family
> stopping in.
>
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