David Hendley on sat 16 dec 00
Martin, I disagree with Mel here.
Keep your peeps open and prop your lid during the first part
of your firing. It's not an urban legend.
I know you are very concerned with energy use, but that is
not the only concern. There is a lot of water vapor released
when first heating a kiln. It has to go somewhere, and if you
seal up your kiln you will just force it through every little
crack and crevice, rusting out your metal kiln jacket and sending
steam into your electric control panel.
During these early stages of heating, with your elements on
'low', you are not using that much electricity anyway.
Concerning 'spritzing' an electric kiln:
This is nuts.
The reason for introducing H2O into a kiln is to enhance reduction
effects.
Come on, think about this, could spraying water on an electric
appliance possibly be a well-reasoned action?
--
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
hendley@tyler.net
http://www.farmpots.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: Martin Howard
To:
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 12:57 AM
Subject: Re water in kiln
| Thanks Mel.
| So I will be saving even more power units by closing up each firing from
the
| beginning. No open tops anymore.
| It's amazing what effects teachers can have, what "urban legends" abound,
| and how long and hard something taught by teachers we respect remains in
the
| mind as unalterable fact.
| Experience is what we need, but also the courage to go against what
teacher
| has told us and find out for ourselves. It's interesting the bible
instructs
| us to have no fear, but have faith. Actually, the word faith is a
| mistranslation. Courage would be a better translation.
|
| But closing the kiln completely, all the time she's firing up or down,
will
| mean that I need to fire the pottery woodburning stove a little more to
keep
| my fingers warm and find some more dry wood. But that will mean some more
| wood ash for glazes.
| Oh, well, balances in everything.
|
| Martin Howard
Kurt Wild on sat 16 dec 00
At 08:42 AM 12/16/2000 -0600, you wrote:
>Martin, I disagree with Mel here.
And I too. Some years ago I was at an Orton workshop and the suggestion
was to allow air to enter the kiln as an aid in obtaining good low
temperature reds and not the burnt black look that often happens with them.
Also, I thought that one minimizes bloating if sufficient air is allowed in
the kiln during the early stage of bisque firing as carbonaceous material
and sulphur compounds burn out.
Kurt
email: KURT.L.WILD@uwrf.edu
website: http://wwwpp.uwrf.edu/~kw77
| |
|
