Dave Pike on wed 1 oct 03
Dear Sue,
I don't use my chimney damper at all. I have used it perhaps once or twice
in the time since I've fired the kiln. It seems to me like a variable I
don't want to have to deal with. I do understand the limits of wood and
helpers. I keep a 1 to 2 year supply of Japanese red pine on hand, I fire on
average every 6 weeks, and a ready supply of caffiene and food to stave off
any mutiny. So far I've only had one semi-mutiny, and that was becuase of
different ideas, not fatigue. As another perspective, my teacher doesn't
use his damper either. The chimney on that snake kiln is at most 5 meters
and the diameter isn't that big. The total length of the kiln is 10 meters,
the slope is also low. By calculations in the books I've seen it should't
fire at all. If you have Ceramics Monthly, there was an article several
years back on Mr. Kawabuchi's snake kiln written by Isamu Mizoguchi and
Lowell Baker. It is worth a look also for the pictures. If you do have a
look, I will state a correction in what was written. I don't have the
article in front of me, but when Isamu was writing it and I was proofing it,
I made a mistake in one translation. Tongue firmly in cheek I wrote "The
world famous wood pig method." The wood pig should have been translated as
"wood stuffed into the side stoking hole." The Japanese is "kibuta" I never
thought Isamu would send it off to C.M.
Sincerely
Dave
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