Here are the shots from this weeks soda firing. In this experimental firing (which didn't work!), I lostt most of the plates and a couple of bowls to warping. A friend had the same plate warping problem in this same crossdraft design, but I had pretty good success with mine in other firings, so I suspect the difference is and will be the bag wall arrangment.. Next firing I'm going back to the original bag wall and flue size.. I'm also not going to augment with wood. It's just putting too many little unwanted pieces of crud in and on some of the pots and I don't think it's necessary for the look and surfaces I want.
I got an early, 6am, studio start to turn on the electric kiln (doing some refires), and soak some reed for handles. The rest of the day I'll be baking bread, taking apart an old computer to remove the hard drive and ram chips and get a bit more studio time until the kiln makes it too hot for comfort.
I have a simple and easy dinner planned - ham steak, garden squash and garlic,rosemary roasted potatoes. After dinner the studio will be too hot , so I'll call it a day and watch some TV and continue clearing some of these paper piles.
we've had similar warping problems in our crossdraft salt kiln. we have forced draft burners and we've come to the conclusion that the flame is too harsh and strong and it is the main culprit in the warping. vs. my crossdraft wood kiln which has a very lazy flame. also wadding closer together at the foot helps, no more than 1.5" apart on shallow bowls and plates.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback Brandon. Next firing I'll try firing a plate just sitting on a very thin coasting of alumina hydrate, which is what I do with test tiles and see if that works. I'll also try your 1 1/2" was spacing. I've been using a spacing of about 2 1/2".
ReplyDelete