Lee Love on fri 8 jan 10
This link popped up in gmail while I was reading Paul's response to Craig:
http://jnfirewood.com/
It is interesting to me because they sell both lump mesquite
and oak charcoal. I want to experiment with a little yohen kiln
using charcoal.
They also sell Chimnea grills and beehive ovens.
--
Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/
"Ta tIr na n-=3DF3g ar chul an tI=3D97tIr dlainn trina ch=3DE9ile"=3D97tha=
t is, "T=3D
he
land of eternal youth is behind the house, a beautiful land fluent
within itself." -- John O'Donohue
Craig Edwards on fri 8 jan 10
Stopped by Brian's sawmill just outside of Sartell. Oh boy, he has some
great seasoned oak slab wood, at $40 a bundle it's a good deal. I get about
a cord and a half out of a bundle. Mike can haul 4 bundles on his trailer,
so 4 bundles were bought, I try and stay at least a firing ahead with wood=
,
so by the time this wood gets burned it will be seasoned for two years.. oh
yeah.
If you fire with wood, wood is important. Sometimes I think that most of th=
e
problems with wood firing are caused by a lack of care and respect for the
wood. A good friend and wood firer uses stacking wood as a spiritual
exercise, such beautiful stacks, aesthetically very pleasing, and inspiring=
.
It is such a joy to fire with wood that has been taken care of and shown
respect. Some fire with the wood that is stacked all higgly-piggly, this
makes firing a lot more work and not all that pleasant an experience.
Keep warm and good fires in the New Year.
--
Make Good Pots
~Craig
New London MN
http://woodfiredpottery.blogspot.com/
Paul Herman on fri 8 jan 10
Hi Craig,
Greetings from out west in the mountains.
I am envious. Too bad for me, we don't have Brian's sawmill out here
in Doyle, because all the local sawmills in NE California are
basically corporate behemoths, and in the lumber game for short term
gains. All of them except Quincy have closed up shop, laid off all the
sawyers and loggers, packed up and gone away. Just like a bunch of
carpet baggers. What are we gonna do? Well, I guess we will go up the
mountains, into the forest and cut our own stoking wood, even more
than before. Joe's friends who ran the truss factory out in Fernley
have just about closed up shop, so there are no more fir lumber scraps
from them. The Idiot Pack has stopped building crummy under-insulated
particle board shacks in Reno (and stopped selling them for 300K+.)
Here's an old song from deep memory: "Little boxes, little boxes,
little boxes made of ticky-tacky"...etc. Our industrial scrap sources
have dried up, and I guess it's time to plant a few trees where there
is room for them, on my property or not.
You are absolutely right, wood for firing pottery needs very careful
attention, should be stacked in sound and beautiful stacks and dried
properly, for six months at least, out here in the desert. Probably a
couple of years back east there, eh? When the wood firer has done
that, then they should make some really good stuff and fire it with
nice seasoned wood. There really is nothing like that crackling sound,
when you put a stick of dry wood into a HOT kiln. Higgly-piggly stacks
are banned, and splitting and stacking wood is a spiritual exercise.
I've been trying to stay two firings ahead, but think it's a little
slim right now.
Happy new year, Bon Feu etc.,
Paul Herman
Great Basin Pottery
Doyle, California US
www.greatbasinpottery.com/
On Jan 8, 2010, at 2:34 PM, Craig Edwards wrote:
> Stopped by Brian's sawmill just outside of Sartell. Oh boy, he has
> some
> great seasoned oak slab wood, at $40 a bundle it's a good deal. I
> get about
> a cord and a half out of a bundle. Mike can haul 4 bundles on his
> trailer,
> so 4 bundles were bought, I try and stay at least a firing ahead
> with wood,
> so by the time this wood gets burned it will be seasoned for two
> years.. oh
> yeah.
> If you fire with wood, wood is important. Sometimes I think that
> most of the
> problems with wood firing are caused by a lack of care and respect
> for the
> wood. A good friend and wood firer uses stacking wood as a spiritual
> exercise, such beautiful stacks, aesthetically very pleasing, and
> inspiring.
> It is such a joy to fire with wood that has been taken care of and
> shown
> respect. Some fire with the wood that is stacked all higgly-piggly,
> this
> makes firing a lot more work and not all that pleasant an experience.
> Keep warm and good fires in the New Year.
>
>
> --
> Make Good Pots
> ~Craig
> New London MN
> http://woodfiredpottery.blogspot.com/
David Hendley on sat 9 jan 10
Abundant free kiln firewood is also getting harder to find here
in East Texas forest country. I have been firing my wood kiln
almost 20 years now, and have changed my primary source
of wood many times, as various mills open and close.
A wood mill of any size will bring in a wood chipper to grind
up the scraps and sell them. Economically, it's a marginal
operation; the machine is expensive, maintenance is expensive,
and breakdowns are common. By the time you put 2 guys
on the payroll to run it, it's pretty much a wash when the
chips only bring a few dollars a ton. Mostly it just gets all the
scrap out of the way for no extra cost.
So far, I've only paid for wood a few times, mostly for the
convenience of having a stacked pallet-load of boards loaded
directly on the truck. The last 2 summers, I did a few firings
entirely with the shipping crates from big lawn mower-tractors.
I just drive by the stores when I'm in town and load them up.
This requires a couple of hours of work to break down the
crates, but keeps all the material out of the garbage stream.
On the plus side, the wood is kiln dried, so no stacking or
drying is required.
David Hendley
david@farmpots.com
http://www.farmpots.com
Paul Haigh on mon 11 jan 10
I have burned a lot of pallets - nails and all. If you burn a lot of then- =
the nails may form beautiful welded sculptures covered in glimmering black =
iron oxide crystals. Very pretty. However- they may also flux your firebox =
floor and start eating into it. My floor is high heat duty. It would be fin=
e otherwise. I would guess that high alumina/super duty floor bricks would =
do a lot better.
I now have good access to slab waste at $50 for over a cord - delivered, wh=
ich is a lot cheaper than my time to collect it and doesn't present the nai=
l issue. I occasionally keep some cut up for emergency wood- it's thin and =
dry and gives an immediate burst of heat.
-pH
http://wileyhill.com
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