kterpstra on thu 23 sep 04
There are several out there...some by Dan Anderson, Richard Bresnahan,
Malcom Wright/Takashi Nakazati (sp?), Not all necessarily a "how to".
More people on the list could suggest more. However it's more
complicated than just watching a video. I suggested reading all you
can, firing with someone else, and get educated about the process as
much as you can before you start.
After just returning from the wood conference in Iowa I am scared to
death of people building wood kilns with no regards to flame and smoke
control. Once again I heard of a list of people forced to shut down
their wood kilns in private, school, and art center situations. This
was a VERY intense concern of all potters from around the world.
People like Tony Clennell with his smokeless chimney and one of the
Ozzie's (tony--what was his name?) doing research on emission control
are going to be the ones keeping us in business if we are lucky.
I cringe when I hear about "fireworks and flame coming out the chimney".
That is definitely NOT part of the romance of woodfiring anymore! It
just takes ONE passerby or ONE disgruntled neighbor to complain to the
fire department, the police, the zoning commissioner, the Department of
Natural Recources, or any powers that be that you have not thought of.
They CAN shut you down.
We need to be aware more than ever of keeping this process alive and
available but to do it we need to stay smart about it. At school we
fire with all oak because if fires cleaner even though pine is available
and has it's advantages. The pine simply makes too much smoke. We have
more than enough passive dampers in the chimney to control the length of
flame and control smoke. We have also learned a stoking pattern for our
kiln which eliminates lots of smoke during the firing. Make sure the
height of the chimney is adequate. The chimney can hide a lot.
Time for another discussion about this on Clayart? Tony C. when you
have a chance to breathe, please tell us more about your smokeless
chimney? Others? I'm very passionate and serious about this. Some of the
best wood kilns in the country have had to be torn down in the past
year.
Karen Terpstra
La Crosse, WI
http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/terpstra/
http://www.terpstra-lou.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Eisenstein [mailto:alban@SOCKET.NET]
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 2:50 PM
Subject: introductory videotape?
A bunch of us are building a woodfired kiln in
my backyard. Some of my neighbors are getting
interested in the thing, ("a big fire? Flames shooting
out the chimney? That sounds so cool!") - but
they don't have any idea about making pottery
or why build a kiln in the first place ("isn't it
simpler to put the watchamacallit in your oven?").
(snip)
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