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Might benefit from a small addition of gum arabic. It's rather fragile and the binder might be helpful.

The OP shows a location in the UK and price limits in pounds. The standard electric service there is 230V. In the US, standard residential electric service is 120/240V, where the normal household receptacle is 120V and other special purpose receptacles are 240V. Thus, in the US, there are a variety of kilns designed for either 120V or 240V service. I don't think there will be any 120V kilns in the UK, but I could be wrong.

If you calcine alumina hydrate to drive off the H2O you will be left with alumina oxide. (approx 35% LOI from it) Whether or not the mesh size is different I don't know. I found a pdf with mesh size of various aluminas here if you want to compare it to your alumina hydrate. If you don't calcine it there might be issues with both the glaze lay down and/or gassing off (plus the obvious difference of adjusting the recipe to allow for the LOI if you don't calcine it).

Only very small kilns will run on 120V service. Any kiln of functional size will need 220/240 volts. The smallest kiln I would consider is an 18" wide model. But ideally a 23" wide model would be the most functional, as you can fit plates and serving bowls in it much easier. First thing to do is to take a look at the web sites of some kiln manufacturers in your area to get an idea of what's out there, and see what the electrical requirements are for the size of kiln you want. Then have an electrician check out your system to see what size circuit your system can handle. Minimum you'll need a 30 amp breaker, on up to 50 or 60 amps depending on the size of kiln you want. At £800 you'll have to buy used, but looking at the new ones will give you an idea of what you'll need to do as far as hooking it up. If the kiln is indoors, it will need to be vented, or at the very least have 2 windows that can create a cross draft with fans.

The stories of jack pots of bricks from busted factories are turning into myth but we gotta keep trying. I'll admit to getting a bit jealous of the stuff I've missed out on but I try to mind my own business, for the most part. The one thing I can try to add is the option to build with castable mixes although cheap alumimna is, again, a thing of the past. From what I can gather one of the most important part of success with castable refractory for salt and soda kilns is the wash. But this will only keep the degradation at bay for so long. Ruthanne Tudball and Jack Troy published recipes for refractory mixes for salt and soda kilns. iirc they might be the same recipes though. Rhodes also mentioned something about brick degradation and density that would be worthwhile to consiedr if trying to modify or improve on a mix. I convinced myself it was possible to find a way forward without actually having any bricks. I let the idea go after finding a precious seed hoard of super duty brick a few years ago but castable refractories would have scratched the itch for me. I'm still tempted to finalise a recipe and design but it's tough to just take something on for fun without a certain amount of spare time and disposable income. For now it's just a very interesting, very part time, research project.

If thsi is in the UK then we need to know more on what the electrical voltage is in the UK. Maybe some UK potters can chine in with this tec info

Hi B.H., Welcome to the Forum! Good questions. Excepting small/test kilns, expect your kiln to be rated for 240v, single phase*. Also expect to run a dedicated circuit for your kiln. Firing clays and glazes produces fumes. Adequate ventilation is a must, in my opinion. To fire cone 8, a kiln rated to at least cone 10 will last better than a lower rated kiln. There are several archived threads here where some of your questions are discussed at length; I'll look later today, have to run just now! *Not sure what the electric standard/convention is in Southampton. Here in California (USA) we have 240v single phase at our home. Three phase is typically only found in commercial buildings...

Hello All I am mixing up some shinos and looking for a classic white high alumina shino- the receipe ( Jihn Britt) requires a Alumina Oxide (A-12) cant seem to find that here in uk is it a Calcained Alumina hydrate? cant seem to find the answer online. Thanks all

Morning y'all! My studio is restructuring things, & is phasing out a heavily used KMT1627PK kiln. We'd love to see it go for $4500, but are willing to negotiate lower on price. The kiln would come with a new set of elements (~$500), but will need a replacement rigid fiber blanket for the floor (~$170, & I can connect you to a supplier for this). The kiln also has a fair amount of internal wear on the bricks throughout the firing chamber from being fired every weekday since at least June 2017. Thank you for your time, & please let me know if you have any questions!

Since you are not too far away, here are a couple options. About 10 years ago I convinced Alsey (a hard brick manufacturer in Illinois) to sell me three pallets of "seconds" for a significantly reduced price. When they arrived they looked perfect to me and have done well in my wood kiln. These were super duty bricks. I think they were not really seconds and they were just being nice. They normally crush up any rejects as grog in future batches. https://www.alsey.com/ One other option: There was a second-hand refractory store near St. Louis that closed a few years ago. A local guy that makes an occasional pizza oven bought all the remaining inventory he could move. I bought a large load of 4x3x9" really nice bricks for only around $1/brick just a few months ago. He probably still has a large inventory, particularly of large and odd-shaped bricks. I can try to contact him if you are interested. Would be a bit of a drive though.

Hello, I am fairly new to ceramics and (hoping) to purchase a kiln for home studio use, but have no idea what is best.. so hoping for some advice on what may be best to get! I understand the voltage needs to be lower (I think what I have read is around 120 Volts for it to be compatible for normal home electricity usage?), it will have to be a fairly small size for me too although may be scope to have a larger one. I am slightly unsure of the health-and-safety pointers to look out for when thinking of having one at home too. Iv read the room needs 'proper ventilation' but not sure if having it in a separate room with a window will be enough to suffice. Does anyone know what health and safety tips I should be aware of when choosing, setting up and running? Does anyone have any knowledge on types of kilns/ makes/models that may suit home-usage a bit better? I usually fire stoneware up to cone 8. I also have a budget of £800. so not sure if this is even enough money to purchase one- so was hoping to look second hand! Thank you very much in advance- appreciate any advice!

All right. For an initial test I have mixed up about 1/3 cup white earthenware slip (cone 06-04 that I got locally and ball milled it a few days) and to this I added about a tablespoon of vinegar. Mixed it up and it bubbled a little bit (a lot of the recipes mention vinegar but not sure why exactly). By morning it had settled on top as a clear fluid and the slip had become rather unplastic, sort of more like wet sand than slip. I poured off the excess fluid. Then I added about 1/2 a teaspoon soda ash and mixed it in well. It tried to form a hard crust so I had to put it into one of my mortars and use the pestle to grind it smooth again. I have a rather large ball mill but alas, not a little one. Maybe I should make myself a smaller porcelain jar and little balls for just such things ... but I digress! The last thing I added was 1 ml of sodium silicate, mixed well then a touch more. It became very creamy and lost the hint of grittiness. I have no idea how it will preform but now I'm going to test it. Not sure if the vinegar was actually any help at all or not but the soda ash and sodium silicate made sense. I'll let you know how well it works or doesn't. I'm going to test it filling in tiny defects and a crack in a bone china horse sculpture I want to glaze. My initial reaction is it has a good feel, much like the bisque mender I had been using and loved. I can always color adjust afterwards with a little airbrushed opaque white underglaze if needed over it to blend it in before I move onto coloring the piece. Wish me luck! I'll be firing it to cone 04.

I don’t know about other lustres, but gold and white gold are made of those actual materials, and don’t tarnish. Some raku glazes that contain a lot of copper can be prone to reoxidizing over time. Usually folks will coat pieces like that with spray varnish or similar. I think it could work for Palladium.

@AndreaK, lowfire and earthenware clay has been used for centuries around the world for domestic ware. How durable this particular body is would have to be tested, I know some of the lowfire talc bodies were very weak. In North America many potters have gravitated to midrange for various reasons, one of which is it's possible to have wares that don't leak or overheat in the microwave even if the glaze has crazing or pinholes and it's fine to leave the bottom of the pots unglazed. For lowfire (including earthenware for this conversation) in order for the ware to not weep / leak when used for mugs etc it is necessary to completely glaze the pot. (I do know someone who uses terra sig on the foot but that's another topic). A huge advantage of using lowfire / earthenware is the energy savings when glaze firing and the wear and tear on the kiln elements etc. Plainsman supplies really thorough info on all their claybodies. For Snow the link to it is here, click on each of the subjects and it will expand to give the details. For Snow the absorption figures are below. You can see that it has a huge absorption of 28% when fired anywhere from cone 06 all the way to cone 2. You can also see that the absorption doesn't drop below 12% even when fired to cone 6. What this means is there is never going to be enough fluxing of the clay to vitrify it enough to be leak proof without a glaze. Functional ware made from this clay will need to be stilted when glaze fired. From the Snow page (linked above) it looks like Spectrum 700 glaze fits this body well with Snow being bisque fired to cone 04 and glaze fired to 05.

Here you go! B1 Revised.pdf

Hello! I am looking to substitute frit 3195 for 3134 in this recipe. I understand I'll need to add some Kaolin, but could someone help with how much? Brian Taylor's B1 Clear Base Wollastonite . . . 25.5g Frit 3195. . . 22.22g Flint . . . 18.89g Neph Sy . . . 16.67g Epk . . . 16.67g Thanks!

I have seen lots of hard brick over the years on many sites from potters web to craigslist and others-search a thread here thats old on ceramic sites for sales ( not facebook marketlplace) They make the bricks in the east where you live by the way.

Many commercial underglazes just don't hold up at cone 10. They start to flux out and that causes them to behave poorly when you put a glaze over them. If you're just looking for black or blue, you'd probably be better off making your own underglaze or slip. If you do want to use commercial underglazes, each color will need to be tested to see how it holds up and cone 10 and with your clear glaze.

Yes I'm looking at using plainsman clay as it's made in my city. The studio that I'm looking at uses their low fire snow clay for wheel thrown pieces and then low fire glazes. They are saying that it is good for mugs and bowls, however everything that I am reading online is kind of saying the opposite. I am really looking to make pieces that would be food safe and useable pieces. I'd be able to do everything in my home other than the firing as I don't have a kiln.

also old mills that used bricks in say kiln drying or boilers can be a source.

If there is a colour shift it's likely to be minimal if at all.

The only thing I am out of is Lithium, so I don't mix any glaze that contains Lithium. One of these days they are going to figure out how to make a battery easier and cheaper without using Lithium. Denice

Sourcing used bricks is becoming increasingly difficult since US manufacturing has been in decline for so long. You probably won't find any on FB or Craigslist, as those are listing by individuals. Instead, you want to look at industrial liquidations, commercial auctions, and even government surplus. Also contact manufacturers of refractories and see if they have factory seconds.

I have recently lost interest in firing my converted gas kiln due to a shift in style towards caustic atmospheres, i.e. wood, salt or soda. My biggest road block is sourcing bricks to build a new kiln. I’ve read up on kiln building and all that, and am quite handy when it comes to putting things together, but I can’t find any bricks! I’ve looked on FB Marketplace and Craigslist within 500 miles with no luck, and new brick costs way too much. I’m from the Akron, OH area and could use some help.