scott@explorethejourney.org on mon 28 nov 05
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A friend and I just got our hands on Fredrick L. Olsen's Kiln Book and have decided to build a wood
fire kiln. We've never built a kiln like this(or any kiln), but hope to use the book as a guide.
He has a FAST FIRE wood kiln that we are thinking of building, and I was wondering if anyone has
ever built or used one of these FAST FIRE kilns before. I'm not quite sure what differant effects
the pots would have if they are fired fast or fired for a long period of time would be. So if
anyone has any advice or any comments please do.
thanks
scott jarrett
jackson, ms
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Andrew M Casto on mon 28 nov 05
Scott,
I just built my first wood kiln last year. My best advice to you would be
to go and actually see, feel, touch, and even fire as many kilns as you can
before you build yours. I really can't stress the importance of this
enough. I did not do nearly enough of this, and could have saved myself
many headaches by just being a bit more thorough in my planning. Our kiln
is working ok now...still not fantastic, but working. We are learning as we
fire and making improvements (and these are not cheap improvements). I
think if I had worked harder in the preparation stages we could have done a
lot better, and saved a tremendous amount of energy and money.
Also...many people have built the Olsen fast fire. I have read several
David Hendley posts and articles about his fast fire kiln. He would be an
excellent source of information. Also check the archives...you will find
much on fast fire kilns there. I just did a search for "fast fire" and
found 653 hits.
You can get to the archive page here:
http://lsv.ceramics.org/scripts/wa.exe?S1=clayart
While you're looking at books, if you haven't already, I would get "The Art
of Firing" by Nils Lou, "Wood Fired Stoneware and Porcelain" by Jack Troy,
and "Kilns" by Daniel Rhodes. I would read them all before I even touched a
brick. I'm sure others will have many suggestions around this too.
Good luck,
Andrew Casto
andrew_casto@progressive.com
andy@redbridgepottery.com
Snail Scott on tue 29 nov 05
At 09:46 AM 11/28/2005 -0600, you wrote:
>...just got our hands on Fredrick L. Olsen's Kiln Book...
>He has a FAST FIRE wood kiln that we are thinking of building...I'm not
quite sure what differant effects
>the pots would have if they are fired fast or fired for a long period of
time would be.
The Olson Fast-Fire design is intended to do quick,
efficient firings, and it does. It is not intended
to promote the thick chunky ash-fall so beloved of
many wood-fire folks. It gets the pots hot enough, no
problem, but it won't look like an anagama firing.
So, ask yourself WHY you want to fire wood. If you
want the anagama look, the Fast-Fire won't make you
happy. If you have ready, inexpensive access to wood
or prefer wood to gas for other reasons, the fast-
fire design will give you a nice, efficient kiln
which happens to run on wood, and gives relatively
slight 'woodfire' effects.
-Snail
Hank Murrow on tue 29 nov 05
On Nov 29, 2005, at 6:33 AM, Snail Scott wrote:
>
> The Olson Fast-Fire design is intended to do quick,
> efficient firings, and it does. It is not intended
> to promote the thick chunky ash-fall so beloved of
> many wood-fire folks. It gets the pots hot enough, no
> problem, but it won't look like an anagama firing.
> So, ask yourself WHY you want to fire wood. If you
> want the anagama look, the Fast-Fire won't make you
> happy. If you have ready, inexpensive access to wood
> or prefer wood to gas for other reasons, the fast-
> fire design will give you a nice, efficient kiln
> which happens to run on wood, and gives relatively
> slight 'woodfire' effects.
And Hank adds:
that you can always salt or soda brine lightly to get a more
atmospheric effect. Tom Rohr does that at his Pleasant Hill Pottery
here in Eugene..........His kiln fires fast but is not an Olsen design,
it is his own. Take a look at the pics found here:
http://www.pleasanthillpottery.com/tomgal.htm
He is the potter/teacher who is hosting the pre-conference workshops in
Eugene, see here:
http://www.lanecc.edu/artad/ceramics/index.htm
You all have a great day! Hank
www.murrow.biz/hank
Lee Love on wed 30 nov 05
On 2005/11/29 23:33:02, snail@mindspring.com wrote:
> fire design will give you a nice, efficient kiln
> which happens to run on wood, and gives relatively
> slight 'woodfire' effects.
What I fire is easier to fire (both fireboxes on the same side) and gets
more "wood firing effects." I fire about 17 hours.
Plans and photos of building here: http://public.fotki.com/togeika/my_kiln/
You can see some unglazed shigaraki ware here:
http://potters.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_potters_archive.html
--
李 Lee Love 大
愛 鱗
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/ My Photo Logs
http://ikiru.blogspot.com/ Zen and Craft
"We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is
rounded with a sleep."
--PROSPERO Tempest Shakespeare
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