April Pauley Mink on tue 9 nov 99
Greetings,
I am planning to build a kiln. After struggling along with electric for a
few years, I have settled on a soda kiln, 15 cubic feet, downdraft, k-23
insulating bricks. I have the good fortune to have a couple of experienced
kiln builders to help. My question: Will I be able to fire this kiln
utilizing soda (soda ash mixture)and then also be able to fire it without
soda as a conventional reduction firing? My guess is that I would be able
to utilize soda on one firing, fire without it the next time and probably
get a residual firing, which I think can yield some pretty cool results,
and then on the next firing I could probably achieve a normal reduction
firing. My perception of the new refractory coatings, ITC, etc. is that
they are very good and that the buildup from soda firings would not be too
bad. What do you think? Thank you in advance for your time. Clayart is a
wonderful asset, but man, do I get a ton of messages now. Is there a way
to post messages and view the responses on the thread, or do you have to
get everyone's entries every day? It is not that I don't enjoy them, but
sometimes I am anxious to be in the studio, instead of my desk. I am sure
that you all know what I mean.
It is about peak color time here in South Carolina; there is a huge sweet
gum with the brightest dress of leaves across the pasture--what a show.
Later,
apm
Hank Murrow on fri 12 nov 99
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Greetings,
>I am planning to build a kiln. After struggling along with electric for a
>few years, I have settled on a soda kiln, 15 cubic feet, downdraft, k-23
>insulating bricks. I have the good fortune to have a couple of experienced
>kiln builders to help. My question: Will I be able to fire this kiln
>utilizing soda (soda ash mixture)and then also be able to fire it without
>soda as a conventional reduction firing? My guess is that I would be able
>to utilize soda on one firing, fire without it the next time and probably
>get a residual firing, which I think can yield some pretty cool results,
>and then on the next firing I could probably achieve a normal reduction
>firing.
Good morning April; I have found your speculation to be largely
true concerning soda and soda-less fires. However, if the fireboxes have
lots of brick joints the molten salt will run into them and come out in
later fires. To minimize this, and to get the most glazing out of the salt
I put in the kiln, I build a castable 'pan' in the bottom of the space
between bagwall and burner ports. This forms a 'reservoir' from which the
lake of molten salt vaporizes. I usually cast this pan out of a very high
alumina castable, such as Greencast 94. I have placed high alumina soap
bricks on end in the pan to act as 'wicks', for extra surface area to aid
in vaporisation. The trick is to design your pan to catch all of the salt
or soda that is placed in the kiln, and keep it confined until it is all
vaporized. With such a setup, you will have very little residual salt
between firings. Some of the most beautiful effects have come from these
'residual' fires. By the way, it was Al Bain, now at Portland Comm. Coll.
who first showed me the use of these salt-pans. I'm a little skeptical
concerning the use of IFB in and around the firebox zone, even with a pan.
Here in Eugene, the Rowan (mountainash) tree outside our dining
room has too many colors to count or describe, and the Cedarwaxwings have
gotten drunk on the berries and pooped red on my Audi! I'm coming back as a
waxwing, Hank
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