doug shea on tue 16 nov 99
Please help out a friend of mine. She is just getting back into pottery
and needs a kiln. She is looking at a Blue Diamond kiln and wonders if
anyone on clayart uses one and if they are any good, reliable, sturdy
etc. ( I looked in the archives and there were a couple of questions
about them, but no real answers.)
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Jim Shea
gail sheffield on wed 17 nov 99
I have one and it seems well made and works fine. However, it is fairly new
and I am not an experienced ceramics person, and have done only low fire
stuff. Zahidi Neale, fellow Clayarter who lives in the next town (and who I
met via Clayart), is very experienced--she looked at it and remarked that
the elements were going to be difficult to change. They are made in New
Orleans and if your friend is within easy driving distance, she can save
considerable $$ on the shipping. I bought mine through Ab Jackson, New
Orleans Clay Supply Co., (504) 947-3937 or (504) 948-0080 (no e-mail
address).
Gail Sheffield
Covington, LA
Tena Payne on wed 17 nov 99
I have an older blue diamond that I bought from a lady
who did casting. The things I don't like about it that
I should have looked for in a kiln --
The bands that encircle the kiln holding the bricks
together should be adjustable so that when shifting or
wear occurs one can tighten them. The model I have is
non-adjustable.
The hinge for the lid is not as heavy-duty as I'd
like... or as the kiln needs. It wears on the bricks
and is flimsy... comprimising the whole lid.
Other than those two things, the kiln is fine. I did
later take the plunge and invest in a Skutt
programable kiln. It's the best investment I've made
since my Soldner wheel 20 years ago. Buy good stuff to
start with and you won't have it to do again soon.
Tena
Birmingham
--- doug shea wrote:
> ----------------------------Original
> message----------------------------
> Please help out a friend of mine. She is just
> getting back into pottery
> and needs a kiln. She is looking at a Blue Diamond
> kiln and wonders if
> anyone on clayart uses one and if they are any good,
> reliable, sturdy
> etc. ( I looked in the archives and there were a
> couple of questions
> about them, but no real answers.)
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks, Jim Shea
>
=====
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C. Rasko on thu 18 nov 99
Many years ago I bought a Blue Diamond because it was inexpensive and I
needed a kiln. My husband, an electrical engineer refused to install it
saying it was not good quality and he wouldn't trust it. I sold it to a
hobbyist who fired it about once a month. It did last her three years before
the bricks crumbled.
A few years after that I worked at a community center that had a cone 8 Blue
Diamond. (Cities like to buy cheap stuff.) Again, the bricks were very
fragile compared to other kilns I had fired (Skutt, Paragon, Cress, Aim,
Duncan). We were at a very small facility at first, and the kiln was fired
only once a week to a cone 04. Some of the repairs we had to make in just
that one year were replacing crumbling bricks, replacing the electrical cord,
and replacing some of the elements. The elements just snapped in half one
day. We moved to a larger facility and took the blue diamond with us. We
now used it for firings up to cone 6. The kiln lasted only a few months.
Never did we abuse the kiln. We treated it with kid gloves knowing how
fragile it was. You just get what you pay for I guess.
I have known three other people who had Blue Diamonds and they had no trouble
with them. Of course they didn't fire them very often either. Obviously, I
cannot give a good recommendation for any Blue Diamond. Perhaps they have
improved in the past ten years since I last fired one, but I wouldn't count
on it.
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