WOOD

In preparation for the first firing I am gathering and splitting wood. You can see two bunches of split wood in this post -- one is a pile and the other is stacked under the woodshed. It is a mixture of oak, hickory, pine, poplar and cherry plus a bunch of small pieces of dressed wood for my side stoke hole. They say that wood heats you four times; once when you cut it, once when hauled, then when you split it and when it burns. I would add a fifth time: when you stack it in the south in the summer. The good thing about wood firing in the south is that we will never run out of pine in my lifetime. My neighbor Dave brought over an oak tree from his son-in-law's yard with his front loader that was about 30" in diameter in places. It gave me a new appreciation of tree service workers. Now on to glazing!

Pots for the Kiln

Here is a picture of pots that are in process for the first firing. They are stoneware, porcelain and white stoneware...various clays around the studio. I am making more pieces than is probably necessary as I don't have a good idea how many pots this kiln will hold.

The Kiln is Done

The kiln is finally done!  There are now lots of pots to be made for the first firing and wood to be cut and split.  You can see the supporting steel is in place and the metal rods are tightened to the point of light tension.  I have included some detail shots of the side stoke port, the bricks that line the side and the ports for pyrometers.  

The side stoke plug is an idea I got from Michel Bayne, a local potter and friend that cast his port and plug using terra cotta flower pots.  Michel is a very fine clay artist working in the Edgefield tradition. 

The pyrometer ports will contain porcelain tubes that will act as shields for the pyrometer's two thermocouples, one placed next to the front stack and one near the back.  They will measure the temperature during the firing along with pyrometric cones.

Final Stucco Coat

The final coat of insulating stucco is attached the outside surface of the kiln.  It covers both the bricks and the layer of kaowool blanket and both help to keep the heat in the kiln.  I anticipate that this will need patching and covering after each firing as the kiln expands and contracts during the firing process.  Next the steel is attached -- I am almost there and it is time to make pots for the first firing!

Woodshed

The wood shed has been attached to the kiln shed and the bracing has been attached to both sheds.  I am ready not to be on a ladder for a while and working over my head and with the sun gleaming down on sheet metal.  But we had rain almost every day last week  and the wood shed roof, which goes slightly under that of the kiln shed creates quite a run off when the rain comes down.  I will eventually attach a gutter and hook that up to a rain barrel for the garden.  Next comes finishing the outside stucco and attaching the steel bracing to the kiln.

Insulating Blanket Coating

The kiln now has a coat of Kaowool, a spun clay material that has an insulating quality and can withstand temperatures in excess of 2000 degrees F.  This material is similar to the tiles that cover the surface of the Space Shuttle and keep it from burning up during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.  You can see from the photo that on the kiln it is held in place with wire which will also act a surface to grip and hold a coat of A.P. Green refractory stucco insulation that will cover the outside of the arch and further help to retain heat in the kiln during firings.   

Finishing the Chimney

The chimney is done at last.  You can see by this photo that the structure rises 14 feet above the level of the kiln floor and required using my neighbor Dave's scaffolding to put the upper parts of the stack in place.  Cody and I came up with the brick detailing at the top for a little fun at the end of a challenging part of the kiln's building process.  We also finished attaching the last elements of the roof in place and made flashing for the space between the roof and the chimney.  The damper is enclosed in the stack(where the chimney corbels in to a smaller diameter) and will help control the amount of draft the kiln will draw during a firing.