From Electric Firing To Wood Firing

[Rebecca0902]

Hello all,

 

I'm a student of the ceramic arts and for the past 2 years have only worked with Electric Kilns. I was recently given the opprotunity to get in on a wood firing in January and could not be more excited. But being as inexperienced as I am I have a few very basic questions about it that I was not able to find the answers to with google search.

 

With wood firing is there a need to bisque the peices first? I'm assuming there is and if so is this normally done in an electric kiln?

 

Any other advice you can throw my way would be welcomed, as I said I'm very new to wood firing that this will be a very experimental process for me.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Marcia Selsor]

Yes. Bisque the pieces.

Marcia

[Guest JBaymore]

Rebecca,

 

As to the NECESSITY of bisquing...... it depends on the type of kiln and the firing cycle the kiln owner uses. But bisqued is the "safe" route and really does nothing particularly "bad". It just might be a wasted step (and wasted enery and air pollution).

 

For the best answer to that question, talk to the person who invited you .....whom I assume is the actual kiln owner. They know the dictates of their kiln and what the firing plan is. They might also have some suggestions about the types of clay bodies and any glazes that you should consider using.

 

There are many ways to "wood fire". In America for some reason, "woodfire" seems to be used synonomously with "anagama fired, yakishime work" these days. But a woodfire can be other things too....... like only subtly different from a cone 9 gas firing. Or even woodfire raku.

 

In my noborigama here in NH, I stack some work green and some work bisqued. Some work is glazed and some work is yakishime (unglazed). In one of the very unique anagama that I frequently fire in Japan, most all of the work needs to be bisqued, due to the fast initial climb of that particular kiln design. Right next to that kiln there is another anagama that all of the work goes into green.

 

If I want to, I can even stack work leather hard into chamber 4 of my kiln..... it would dry out quite evenly as the humidity and temperature slowly both decreased in the chamber as the kiln came up. I don't do that often.....but have done it. Works fine.

 

Some glazes that are just fine in the typical 12-16 hour up-cycle of a gas kiln will run all to heck in a 72 or more hour wood kiln firing. Some clay bodies that are just fine in a short heavy reduction gas firing will tend to slump in long wood firings. Some people fire wood kilns to Orton cone 9-10......but some firings are done far higher. In my noborigama, depending on the chamber, I fire anywhere from Orton cone 9 to Orton cone 14. Different stuff goes in those different places.

 

Some people "fast fire" in a wood kiln.... others fire for a week or more.

 

So you need to know a bit of the details about the particular kiln and the typical firings in that kiln. A lot of any answers depends on the kiln and firing schedule.

 

Hope this helps.

 

best,

 

............john

[Rebecca0902]

Thank you so much for your replies!

 

I talked to my friend and am all straightened out. I love that the ceramics world has such a tight knit community ready to help out when a newbie has questions! Thanks again!