David Hendley on thu 5 may 11
Paul, I hate discourage anyone, but your homemade brick idea sounds like
an exercise in futility. Think about the economics:
At 8 or 10 pounds of clay per brick, unless you have some free clay that is
not usable for making pottery, it would be cheaper to go buy low-duty
firebrick - the type sold for fireplaces and such - they are not expensive.
Firing bricks along with a load of pottery would be a real pain - you would
have to slow your firings way down, especially when firing the green bricks=
,
adding more cost and wasting time.
Actually, the whole notion of using firebricks for a pizza oven is not very
economic unless you just happen to have extra firebricks laying around.
Common red bricks will work fine, and you can, through the use of
varying the mortar joints, make arches out of straight house bricks.
Alternately, you can make a good oven out of plain old dirt, with just
a few additives. You just make a pile of sand in a dome shape, apply the
earth mixture over the sand, and remove the sand when it dries. I suggest
you look at some books to get more ideas. Kiko Denzer wrote the
best known book, Build Your Own Earth Oven. His blog is here:
http://kikodenzer.blogspot.com/.
I built my oven out of firebrick because I "just happen to have extra
firebricks laying around". You can see photos here:
http://www.farmpots.com/oven.htm. There is other pottery stuff at
the top of the page, but the oven photos are there.
Take a look at Clay Art's Kelly Savino's oven here:
www.primalgommy.com/earthoven.html. There are lots of photos of
building the oven.
There is also a "Yahoo Group" for wood-fired ovens - at least there
used to be - I dropped out a few years ago.
David Hendley
david@farmpots.com
http://www.farmpots.com
http://www.thewahooligans.com
----- Original Message -----
>I have some ^10 stoneware that is pretty smooth, and very plastic. I'd lik=
e
>to make hard bricks for use in a pizza oven, so it needs to withstand some
>thermal shock.
>
> Could I mix maybe 50/50 with a local sand or silt (use my feet in a kiddi=
e
> pool, I think) and wood fire when dry? This would reduce shrinkage, dryin=
g
> problems, and maybe thermal stress problems. I know that kyanite would
> rock for this application, but I have a Scottish last name, so free would
> be best.
>
> Alternate approaches?
>
> Ideally I'd just throw a couple dozen in the kiln each time I fire, unles=
s
> that sweatshop labor comes through for me.
>
Paul Haigh on thu 5 may 11
I have some ^10 stoneware that is pretty smooth, and very plastic. I'd like=
to make hard bricks for use in a pizza oven, so it needs to withstand some=
thermal shock.
Could I mix maybe 50/50 with a local sand or silt (use my feet in a kiddie =
pool, I think) and wood fire when dry? This would reduce shrinkage, drying =
problems, and maybe thermal stress problems. I know that kyanite would rock=
for this application, but I have a Scottish last name, so free would be be=
st.
Alternate approaches?
Ideally I'd just throw a couple dozen in the kiln each time I fire, unless =
that sweatshop labor comes through for me.
Thanks
Paul Haigh
Wiley Hill Mudworks
Web: http://wileyhill.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wiley-Hill-Mudworks/108145139230652
etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WileyHillMudworks
Mike on fri 6 may 11
Hi Paul,
I don't know if you have considered this, but if you go with an earth
oven, you can dispense with the bricks entirely and it is darn near
free. I built one in an afternoon, and we've been using it now for 3
years, with great results.
Mike
in Taku, Japan
http://karatsupots.com
http://karatsupots.blogspot.com
Workshop in Taku, Spring 2012: To Be Announced
(2011/05/06 3:43), Paul Haigh wrote:
> I have some ^10 stoneware that is pretty smooth, and very plastic. I'd li=
ke to make hard bricks for use in a pizza oven, so it needs to withstand so=
me thermal shock.
>
> Could I mix maybe 50/50 with a local sand or silt (use my feet in a kiddi=
e pool, I think) and wood fire when dry? This would reduce shrinkage, dryin=
g problems, and maybe thermal stress problems. I know that kyanite would ro=
ck for this application, but I have a Scottish last name, so free would be =
best.
>
> Alternate approaches?
>
> Ideally I'd just throw a couple dozen in the kiln each time I fire, unles=
s that sweatshop labor comes through for me.
>
> Thanks
>
>
> Paul Haigh
> Wiley Hill Mudworks
> Web: http://wileyhill.com
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wiley-Hill-Mudworks/1081451392306=
52
> etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WileyHillMudworks
>
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