Maple Syrup

This past weekend William and I boiled down 30+ gallons of maple sap over a wood fire. The day was cool and breezy, but the fire kept us warm. Early on we decided to put a lid over the large boiling pot of sap in order to prevent smoke and ashes from ruining the taste of our syrup. It took us about 7 hrs to reduce by boiling the sap down to about 4 gallons of sweet water.

We finished boiling the sap indoors over the stovetop. The final result was about 3 and 1/2 quarts of very tasty 100% homemade maple syrup. YUM!!!

High water

Heavy rains last week put the bridge to its first real test of its foundation. Several inches of rain pushed the water level of the creek up to within a few feet of the bottom cord of steel. All went well. No damage or undermining found. Very happy.

Visit to a nearby treasure. Colonial Brick kilns at Cayuga.

Driving home to Indiana from Denver, Colorado over the weekend with my wife, my sister and her daughter, I made a short visit to a brickworks in Cayuga, Indiana. Id known about it being in my state for over a year. But never had found time to make the trip to see it.

The 10 or so beehive downdraught kilns are operated by Colonial Brick Co. and still are coal fired to this day. They specialize in recreating old and out of date brick for important historical restorations all over the country.

The sights and smells of the smoke here is a powerful step back in time. If I lived closer, id work for free on the side, just to learn better some of the old ways they made and fired the brick.

I really want to build my next brick kiln like one of these scaled down for my needs. Maybe next year.

Firing results from the brick clamp kiln.

As promised, some photos of fired brick and tile from my latest kiln. It worked very well for a first firing. I have some cold spots and hot spots to improve on next firing. I think nothing will change with the kiln design for now. I will modify how I push the hot coals around in the firebox and stoking in the later stages. Its a learning process, but Im excited about this. Looks like it should be alot of fun!

A brick with your name on it.

Wildcat Creek Brick Company Ok, we are taking orders for your personalised decorative old time brick. Have a one of a kind item with your name or favorite slogan that you can't find anywhere else in the world. Each brick is $10. Larger volume orders get discounts. Shipping is available for an additional cost. If you have a special need let us know!

Email to

r_w_hendrix@hotmail.com

765 490-6271 can lv msg.

Wildcat Creek now on Facebook

Hey, my new brickmaking business is on facebook too.
You would need to be logged in to facebook to see this page.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Wildcat-Creek-Brick-Company/110729915664390

Monster results. Too hot!

The bricks literally MELTED! Wow thats gotta be the hottest kiln Ive made ever.

It took me a few hours with a hammer and chisel to force remove these clinkers.

Heres what it looked like when I first opened it up. You can see that more heat was at the center of the chamber. It was cooler th the edges. Well over 2000 in the middle. Maybe 1800 by the walls.

I do like the wood glazing that occurred on the bricks. The cracking and tearing is most likely from the rapid heating of the clay in the bricks. Need to slow it down to at least double the time on firing. At least 8 to 10 hours. And max temp no more than 1850'F.

Here are a few more pics.

The firebox door.

A look down thru the chimney.

A cutaway diagram.

New brick bottle kiln. The 'Monster'

My latest clay furnace is a small bottle updraft named 'Monster' by my daughter after an energy drink she says it looks like.

Ive wanted to experiment with a different design, hoping to gain easier firings and higher temps.

Just a bunch of firebricks surrounding an old cut up 55 gallon barrell. That surrounded by red brick.

It took me only 4.5 hours to reach 2000'F, and it could have went further if I pushed it. May have went too hot for the clay I was using for the test bricks inside.

Looks to be a real improvement so far though. I will post the results soon.

I pressed out 12 clay bricks last week just for this test firing today. Finished drying them in my electric kiln last night.

Heres a peek inside at the end. See the brick slumped over. Got too hot I think. Gonna have to slow down this beast and run it to 1850 - 1900'F max.

Tennessee red clay test firing.

My wife and I went on vacation last week to the mountains of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I gathered a sample of the well known local red clay to test once I got back home. I wanted to try it out to see how it compared to the clay from my back yard here in Indiana.


The differences in clay is most noticed by color from the iron oxides. Both types have it, but it is more obvious in states of the south. It may have to do with glaciers that overran the northern states like Indiana thousands of years ago.

I brought back several pounds of red clay from my vacation in a plastic tub for test firing.

The outer two are Tennessee red clay and the inner two are Indiana clay. Green unfired from the brick press. The sample clay is very sticky and plastic. It makes a nice unfired brick.

The brick on top is Pigeon Forge, Tennessee red clay. The other three are Flora, Indiana brown clay. Fired in the same kiln for 9 hrs to 1875deg F. Notice the difference in shrinkage.

Heres the address if you are interested in why some clays are so much more red than brown, yellow, or grey.

http://www.ga.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/soils/red.html

Firing temps and brickmaking

The finished color and hardness of a clay brick has alot to do with the highest temp achieved and length of time held there before cool down. There doesn't seem to be as much effect on outcome if the ramp up time to peak temperatre is varied shorter or longer. Obviously the type of clay will have a profound influence on the finished product as well. But here I will focus on firing temp of a single type of clay.

Below are tiles and bricks of the exact same source of clay, prepaired the same way before firing.

They are identical except for the one brick on the lower left. The three of the same color were fired to 1900 deg F over an 8 hr period in my electric kiln. The darker brick made at the same time as the others, was fired to 2000 deg F over 9.5 hrs in the same kiln. All settings on the kiln were identical.

The surface of the darker brick is closer to that of a paver or clinker. It has a reflective quality to it that the others do not. All the bricks and tiles are fired fully and have a strong 'ring' when tapped together. The darker brick has a higher ptched ring to it.

If I were to ever try to make pavers or outdoor tile, they would be fired much like the darker brick. I believe the water proof qualities should be higher.

Notice the small paw prints on the one tile. My kittens were having fun after I made up the tiles.

Bricks in three days

Saturday I came up with a bold idea. To see how quickly I could make a dozen bricks from start to finish. From digging up natural clay all the way to a finshed ready to use good product. It took me two days. Thats it. Three if you want to count cooldown and inspection.

Here are the steps involved and the outcome.

1. Dug up a wheelbarrow load of Flora clay straight out of the ground behind my barn. The clay was already damp from a previous days rainfall. No water will be added.

1:00 pm Saturday

2. Removed all obvious twigs, rocks, and non clay looking dirt material from the load to be formed into bricks. Flora clay at my location is nearly free of roots, rocks or sand. Unusually clean and ready to use for this area of Indiana farmland.

2:00 pm

3. Load brick press and press out 12 bricks. Used all three of my frog logos just for the heck of it.

3:30 pm

4. Load into the electric kiln to begin the drying out. This is really tricky. Too fast and they crack. Too slow and the wont dry for a month!

4:00pm to 9:00pm Saturday.

5. Fire in the electric kiln to at least 2000'F.

7:30am to 9:00pm Sunday

6. Cooldown , unload and inspection.

4:00pm Monday

Success!!!!

Test run of my first water wheel.

I placed the water wheel I built into the streambed to test it out. Work out very well with only a little head pressure to turn it. I will need to make a proper raceway for it to achieve usefull power. But its fun to watch it turn endlessly.

Here is a short video of it in motion. Quality is poor, from my cell phone. I will get better vids soon.

Compressed earth bricks, back to the drawing board.

Its been almost a year since I constructed the chimney of the aluminum furnace out of CEBs. Indiana has a harsh winter season with more than a few freeze/thaw cycles. This is the result of exposure to that bitter winter moisture!

Spalling of many of the faces of the bricks due to freezing after moisture intrusion.

Notice how the mortar has held up better than the clay body of the bricks.

My initial hypothesis is that I skimped too much on the cement content of the clay mix for the bricks. The higher level of cement would likely add to the moisture resistance of the bricks by lowering their water absobtion rate. That is critical in outdoor enviroments where water and freezing are combined threats.

Not sure what I will do about this yet. I do know that any unfired CEBs that I make in the future will have a higher cement quantity in the clay mix. Or I may skip the cement and just fire my CEBs in a clamp kiln to vitrify them and gain the waterproofing needed for my Indiana climate.

The aluminum furnace chimney may be torn down and rebuilt, not sure yet about that either.

Fire and snow.

Heavy snowfall tuesday. Spent the day on another 6.5 hour quickfire of the kiln. Salt glazed the last hour and half. Very good day watching the snow fall while gathering firewood and stoking the kiln.

I am very excited about the heat this firebox can generate in the small chamber.

I actually have to hold back on stoking speed sometimes. Thats still a new one for me.

And it can make alot of really black smoke if I put to much in to fast.

When I start in the morning, I use a kerosene heater in the barn for warmth. But after about an hour, the heat off the kiln becomes plenty in itself. So I turn off the heater for the rest of the day.

There were two pots on the left from the last firing that I refired to get a better glaze effect. I put in a few tiles too. They came out nice.

I liked this pot and plate.