Thinking smaller, getting ready for next firing.

Here are a couple more photos of some of what came out of the Christmas firing of my kiln.
The bricks are really great. The white one in front is one of my favorites.

The large tiles came out very well also.

I went thru alot of firewood last time getting the kiln up to salt glazing temperature. In an expiremental effort to speed up the firing and save fuel, I am reducing the chamber size to salt glaze my pots. I will let you know the results soon.....

All bricked up, waiting for the mud to seal the cracks. I also moved the pyrometer thermacouple probe into the heart of the chamber this time. I hope to get a more accurate reading from it.

Firing is set for sometime this weekend.

Christmas firing challenge and success

I had been planning to fire up my kiln on Christmas day for a week now. I wasnt sure I was going to be able to stick with it after I injured myself on my left hand on Christmas eve. After a trip to the ER and 5 stiches later, I decided to very carefully go on ahead with the firing. With the help of my wife Jackie, my two sons William and Daniel, and their good friend Brandon, I was able to keep the firebox stoked the needed twelve hours. Even with the wind blowing and temps outside dropping into the upper 20s F they helped me with little complaint. Thanks to all of them for the hard work.

I realy like the salt glaze effect on this candlestick holder. Grey green maybe from the bottle glass dust mixed in with the local Flora clay I am using on these.

My chimney flame arrestor had been working great! No more visits from concerned neighbors or the local police over flames shooting out in full view. lol

I enjoyed using my newly purchased pyrometer off Ebay. I still need to discover the correct location in the chamber to place the thermocoule probe. I was getting readings from it far below the actual temps I knew I was reaching. I must of had it in a cold spot out of the main flow of heat. Better luck next time.

Tiles and bricks came out great! Only lost two tiles to cracks. the white brick and pots are from the streambed creek clay. The low iron content make salt glaze not work well at the temps I can reach. I had much better flow this time thru the chamber for the gases. I found that stacking the bricks longwise to the exit flue with 3/4 inch gaps works good. Much less smoke in the barn this time! I will try to post some more pics of what came out soon.

Getting ready for the next firing.

Some of the terracotta tiles I have ready for the kiln firing coming up on my christmas break.

Ive made a new brick frog in honor of the town my latest kiln is located in. Notice the corndog clay insulated thermocouples ive made on the bench.

A few sample Flora bricks drying out ontop of the stove barrel in the barn.

Salt glazed bricks?

Here are a few photos of bricks I fired in the new kiln here in Flora.

All of them came out good and hard. I was also trying out salt glazing just to see what would happen on the bricks.

All of the ones on the bottom two layers showed the effects of the salt.

The heat must have been more intense the nearer they were to the firebox vents.

I will need to work on how I place them as they tend to sag and crack as they get that hot.

If I can perfect this they would make a very interesting and weatherproof outdoor bbq grill.