Anne K. Wellings on thu 20 dec 01
Hi, Muse,
Thanks for your advice regarding firing. Actually, it was a bisque firing
I was worried about, since there has been a lot of talk on Clayart about
firing bisques slowly to burn out the organic material, etc. I was
anticipating a very loose bisque for some last minute stuff and wasn't
sure how to manage it. I ended up having a bit more stuff than I thought,
so I think it will be OK, but I got a lot of good advice for next time,
including advice such as yours on glaze firings.
What's on my mind now is that you are the second person who has assumed
that since I use a blank ring, I must be firing no higher than ^1.
Actually, I am firing to ^6, and it turns out fine. I don't know why,
since it makes sense that it could be a problem, but this kiln has always
been fired that way, even before it was mine, and I never really thought
about it until now. I'm sure I'd be able to tell if there was a
difference in the ware where the blank ring is. I remember another kiln
where some of the elements were bad and I could see the difference in the
ware in those areas. So I am somewhat mystified!
Anne
On Thu, 20 Dec 2001 08:15:03 -0700 musette.young@juno.com writes:
> Hi Anne,
> I just saw your request for advice on the Clayart site, concerning
> firing your partial glaze load. I own and use Skutt electric kilns,
> roughly the size of yours, and fire to cone 6.
> Reload your kiln, so that it is filled. That means more space
> around pots, but that can be helpful in firing. It may mean
> "wasting" some electricity to fire your load, but you may be very
> happy with the results!!
> All of my kilns run on manual switches. I love manual switches,
> because I can control how slowly or quickly my kilns fire. When I
> fire glaze loads, whether they be cone 06 or 6, I like to "soak" the
> glaze once I reach the "high" part of the firing. I turn the
> switches to high, starting from the bottom ring, in one to two hour
> increments, until they're all on high.
> You don't mention in your letter what cone you fire to. If you use
> a blank ring in your kiln, I am assuming you don't fire above a cone
> 1.
> The other alternative I would recommend to you is to take out the
> blank ring.
> Please don't try to fire by using only two sections of elements!!
> Your kiln will not reach temperature, and you risk doing damage to
> your kiln's elements.
> Let me know how the glaze firing turns out!!
> Best regards,
> Muse
> musette.young@juno.com
>
Irja Boden on fri 21 dec 01
Hi Muse,
I read you mail about "soaking," you said that you do that already at the
high firing stages? So when your kiln shut off, is that it. If so I am going
to try that as well.
Maybe that way I can avoid to get up in the middle of the night to wait for
the kiln to shut off. Hmmm bad planning I guess :)
I also soak, but do it after the kiln shuts off. Then I do 1-1 1/2 hour of
low soak. I find that my glaze kiln (skutt) get better result that way,
especially in the bottom that other wise gets a bit dry and under-fired.
Best, Irja
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