Paul Herman on sat 8 mar 03
Hello Lee,
Greetings from the East slope of the Sierra Nevada.
I've been following your progress on the new kiln and have a question.
Those grate bars look really great! What are they, Alumina?
I am planning to build a small woodburner that I can fire in a day, so
I'm watching your construction with interest. The flue between the
fireboxes is a really nice idea. Please continue to let us know when you
have more pictures on the website. It looks like you have used all
hardbrick so far. Will your hotface bricks be hard or soft?
Good Firing(s),
Paul Herman
Great Basin Pottery
423-725 Scott Road
Doyle, California 96109 US
potter@psln.com
Lee wrote:
Building my woodkiln. You can see the process at this webpage:
http://hachiko.com/mashiko.html
Lee in Mashiko
"The lyfe so short, the craft so long to learne." - Geoffrey
Chaucer (c.
1340-1400).-
._____________________________________________
| Lee Love ^/(o\| Practice before theory.
|
| Ikiru@hachiko.com |\o)/v - Sotetsu Yanagi -
|
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'
"All weaves one fabric; all things give
Power unto all things to work and live." - Goethe -
Lee Love on sun 9 mar 03
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Herman"
>
> I've been following your progress on the new kiln and have a question.
> Those grate bars look really great! What are they, Alumina?
Howdy Paul,
I have put up more photos, including one of me & my loyal "helper"
Taiko. Please hit "refresh"/reload if you visit again.
http://hachiko.com/mashiko.html
Those are 39cm kiln posts (In Euan's Aussie English: kiln "props.") Eight
are in each firebox and they are spaced with 5cm between them. Euan originally
used metal grates that are used here on the drainage you find beside the roads,
but they oxidized and bent quickly, so he replaced them with these posts.
Another friend here in Mashiko used double length hard bricks, which work
equally well. In Shimaoka's Noborigama, the firemouth has double length
bricks for grates. (I know them intimately, from crawling inside to clean after
each firing.) I just graduated from my 3 year apprenticeship there on February
28th.
> I am planning to build a small woodburner that I can fire in a day, so
> I'm watching your construction with interest.
Euan singlefires (no bisque, slow start) in 12 hours. It will fire
much faster, so he has to be careful to stretch it out this long. I will
bisque, in the begining anyhow, so I'll fire faster in the begining and add
that time I save to a soak at the end of the glaze firing and at the cool down.
>The flue between the fireboxes is a really nice idea.
Yes. You can sit in a rocking chair and stoke this puppy from the
front. No running back & forth to stoke. Nice if only one person is firing.
It is very quiet and is not hot at the firemouth openings. I put a port in
the front of the flue as a passive damper, so I can control the draft from the
front of the kiln, without ever leaving my rocking chair. ;^)
Also note, that there are two double length bricks used as dampers
at the top front of the flue. These can be pushed or pulled to direct the
flame exit to the front , or to push it back toward the middle/back of the ware
chamber.
>Please continue to let us know when you
> have more pictures on the website.
Will do.
>It looks like you have used all
> hardbrick so far. Will your hotface bricks be hard or soft?
The arch will be softbrick, with two fiber blankets over the
top. In the ware chamber, the inside is softbrick and the outside is
hardbrick (two layers of bricks.) It is efficent, but does not cool rapidly
like all softbrick fast fire ware chambers, which are only one width of
softbrick.
Another friend built this design out of all hardbrick and it takes
longer to fire, but he likes it that way. Still another friend built it out of
all hardbrick, except for a softbrick arch. Myself, I'd rather have a kiln
that will fire efficently, but one that I _can_ fire longer if I choose to
regulate the fuel to stretch it out.
--
Lee Love
Mashiko JAPAN Ikiru@hachiko.com
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Lee Love on sun 9 mar 03
Building my woodkiln. You can see the process at this webpage:
http://hachiko.com/mashiko.html
Lee in Mashiko
"The lyfe so short, the craft so long to learne." - Geoffrey Chaucer (c.
1340-1400).-
._____________________________________________
| Lee Love ^/(o\| Practice before theory. |
| Ikiru@hachiko.com |\o)/v - Sotetsu Yanagi - |
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'
"All weaves one fabric; all things give
Power unto all things to work and live." - Goethe -
| |
|
