mel jacobson on fri 6 apr 01
this was discussed last year.
those of us that went to the wood conference at iowa last
year had a good dose of `water in kilns`.
one slide lecture showed drawings of chinese kilns, very old, with
water boys walking on top near the end of a firing. they were
dumping water in.
one of the nordic potters is building an `aqua gama`...with pipes
to insert water all during the firing.
breshnehan dumps a great deal into his kilns.
owen rye in australia mentioned that they wash the kiln
with hoses after firing...keep the ground wet before a firing. soaks
things really good, and that is inside the kiln.
one potter mentioned that a stream ran around his anagama.
so, it seems that water is a real part of the history of wood fired kilns.
there is evidence that the pots are much stronger when fired
with water. and for some reason, the kiln is hotter.
many of these kilns were used for roofing tiles.
one fellow did what i have always wanted to do....did diagrams
with letters and numbers, algebra and chemistry...real smarty
pants stuff. went over my head. but he explained about hydrogen shooting
through the pots at high speed
at 2400 F. i did sorta get it.
a chinese potter told us never to put water in a balloon and drop
it into a kiln. wham, blows up...right back at you. kills you.
there are many posts in the archives about water in kilns.
mel
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
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