jmancin07 Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 I have a cross draft wood fire kiln that I use 300 grade stainless steel for the the grate in the the fire box. I have noticed that it has been oxidizing and flaking off a little bit after a few firings. Should I be worried about the chrome flaking off and getting into the functional ware? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Michael Kline Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 Hi: If you have a bag wall between the firebox and the ware, I doubt that you will have any flakes rising up and landing in the wares. The only time I had trouble with flaking steel was when using angle iron to introduce salt into a gas kiln. I think there was more of a chance that the flakes would get blown around in the kiln because of increased convection of forced air burners. In the wood kiln, wood is constantly being piled onto the grates and I predict that the flakes would have a hard time making it to the pots. The only way I could see this becoming a problem is if you stir the ashes aggressively. But I do that in my kiln, my black pipe grates are completely flaky, and I never have any iron in my cups, bowls, etc. That's my three cents worth. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmancin07 Posted March 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 Thanks for the advice. Im a biochemist who fell in love ceramics while taking a ceramics class at a liberal art school in OH. The chemistry background leads me to a lot of worries about metal contamination in functional ware. Thats why the concern about possible chrome contamination from the stainless steel came up in my thinking. Is rebar an acceptable replacement for fire grates bars? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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