MMB

So its like a Pate de Verre just more clay like.

Being I just blast it for metal purposes I dont have anything attached. Many though get fancy with it. Ive seen something as simple as a swaying hinged piece that attaches to the back so you can reduce the air flow. There are those that increase the air flow by adding extensions to the back for forced air inclusion. This guy got a lil fancy with the back end piece twisting down and up for the vacuum air flow... There is also another option of the "side arm" burner which uses the three way coupler. The air comes from the top. This though can be more difficult to acquire because most big retail hardware stores dont always stock that elbow reducer. I found one though at a tiny old town hardware store, those guys never disappoint. Whats nice about that lay out is it lends the idea of using a MIG welding tip as your gas port instead of using a simple drilled hole. So between the gas port size, gas pressure, and air flow you can easily adjust your heat output. The metal forging community isnt too big when it comes to internet info but there is enough out there to give you the info you need. Oh and use Black pipe not Galv. I see you had a Galv trash can. Eventually it will all burn off but still Zinc fumes are not fun things to inhale. Zinc will burn off galv stuff very easily its better to just avoid entirely. The main body of the side arm burner is galv but that part of the assembly doesnt get hot enough to matter, so really just focus on the areas that do.

Looking further at your vid Id say buy a pair of metal tongs. Or if you can weld make a quick set of them. Or drill holes and bolt a metal one. Very nice idea with the garden 3 prongs but the heat in a kiln could bring those dry wood handles on a warm day to the point of combustion and startle you. Im sure no harm could be caused since you got some nice gloves but it might cause you to drop a piece of work.

Looks good but I see youre using a weed burner as your burner. Sometimes these guys can get a lil choked up during use other than what theyre supposed to do. You might want to look into a Ron Reil Burner. Simple and easy to make and typically very cheap to make. If I remember correctly my first one I used a 1 1/2 reducer to 1 in pipe, a cross pipe of 1/2 pipe with a 1/16 gas hole positioned in the center. Its been a while since Ive made my last burner but with my furnace I can smelt copper so the heat output is there. The pic is it on low. Any higher and I would need a coupler on the end so the flame has something to hang on too. Easy and cheap and Im sure your top flue would be fine and you could even cover most of it to get the temp you need.

Ive ground down a stone before and it ended up in some pretty fine dust. I used a cheap tile cutter with a diamond blade and just ran the stone through it one line at a time. The catch underneath the tile cutter will trap most of the cut stone in a water slurry. Pour it off, dry it, and it crumbles to dust. I did this a year ago but never got around to testing it in a glaze. Im sure theres possibly a level of metal "contaminating" the dust just from wear and tear on the blade. Either way it beat pounding with a hammer and dealing with a container bouncing around as you hit it. Oh and because you have to remove the guard on the blade you are bound to get a little wet so wear a face mask.

This sounds very possible. I have an idea of how the base tool could be fashioned around. Would the round end have to be a perfect sphere of would it be advantageous as just a spherical smoothed bodied shape?

An issue that would arise is the clay body maturing to cone 6 and then trying to get the glass melt to really adhere to a nearly if not vitrified body. Glass gets sticky but Im not sure if it would really be the best to last the test of time. Im sure some others on here will better inform. My 2 cents

Saggar firing is another alternative if choose to use your kiln. You can do mummy saggars which are easy, quick, and effective.

I personally got tired of pit firing. It is beautifully random and also rewarding for the work involved. Yet the limitations of colorants kinda got me bored. Burnishing isnt absolutely necessary. Ive enjoyed pots colored by the flames and then coated in acrylic spray brings out deeper tones like the pot was wet. Youll see the colors more vibrantly when cleaning with water but once dry some of the lighter flashings wont be visibly, thats where the acrylic comes in. I have had very little breakage doing pit fires and thats with making the whole stack, tossing gasoline, and fire away. Yet I have used a white stone ware primarily by Highwater. Most were slip cast by this stone ware, not true slip, just made a slurry and defloced then poured. Micaceous red clay is very lovely. I have used natural GA clay which is loaded with mica. Mica though looses its luster in higher fire, but for pit fire you stay low fire to keep the clay porous to accept better coloring. I live in NE Georgia and have gotten good results during winter. Zone 8/9. I had a small dug pit and I would bury the pots on top of at least 6 inches of saw dust/salt/copper carb. Then continue with the saw dust covering then layer after layer make the materials bigger and bigger till it was about 2 - 3 feet about the hole. I would continue to add wood (lightly) as it burned down till ground level, mind you the hole was about 2-3 feet down so the fire was still good and strong. I considered the amount of coal that results from a typical fire and continued to add wood to make it good and hot but also to leave a nicely large coal bed in the end that almost covered the pots. Once I figured it was just about done and low enough I covered with a piece of tin. That was one of my first ones. ALways make sure there is enough air flow but not too much. You want a nice HOT but slow burning finish. The wind blew in the direction of where the rock was missing and it was just enough to keep things going. One thing I will say is give it a day or two before digging it all up. You will be amazed at just how long ashes will stay hot enough to burn you. Not to mention the pots retaining the heat. I ruined a pot once by pulling them up too early and melted a big black rubber thumb mark from one of my gloves. One of my best, which isnt the best out there, but I was very pleased was this guy. Just Salt/Copper carb/ saw dust/ wood/ and a small amount of cow manure. One thing to keep in mind is that some potters accomplish great pit fire flashings by pitfiring then refiring in a kiln to burn off some of the colors then pit fire again. Ive never tried it. Believe it or not that one has been glossed with acrylic and has held a plant for the past 5 or so years in a sunny room and never lost its colorings. Some say the reds will fade in the sun. I left a pot on a pole, uncoated in the sun for over a year and no signs of color loss. Roll with the punches and give pit firing a try. Im glad I did but other avenues opened up for me. I still consider it from time to time because where I live I can access tons of free wood etc to accomplish everything.

Not to derail the thread but how would one achieve a slower cooling process with only a nob controlled kiln. I have low - med - and high. Ive been wondering that if upon shut off how fast "high" raises temp, if "medium" keeps things consistent, and whether "low" keeps things gradual. I havent put much thought into it glaze wise because Ive only thought about it during glass melts. But Im sure like some of us I never knew that fact that J Baymore stated. I guess it makes sense considering those ridiculous crystal forming glazes take long cooling times.

I was going to say the addition of ash might help. SOmeone already said it! Darn. Maybe a heavier coat on or near the rim, the addition of ash or something that will make the glaze flow more, or in conjunction add some texture where the flow can be interrupted and pool. Ive been following Katie Marks "anotherseattleartist" in instagram. Her direction is something Ive aimed to do. Not sure what glaze she uses but its simple and drools downward and pools nicely. Plus she uses gold luster which Ive been wanting to use silver luster for some time now. From her Facebook:

Yeah I haven't tried yet. Went from redoing my studio to redoing my living space lol. What would be the right gum additive? I dont think I have anything like that on hand.

Thank you everyone for your responses. TJR Ill have to give a tile fire a go. I finally have a pay check again so I know I can at least afford a firing. Feels good to not be too broke haha. Thats why I paused a bit when moving those jars of glaze, I kinda felt a maybe if. I could use a good boost and change of flow with what I do. Especially now since Im really aiming to make it a supplemented income.

I have yet again started the tedious task of reorganizing my studio. This time I really think Ill have things in the best possible place. One of the many things that gets rediscovered is the large box of old glazes that Ive stashed under my work table. Like many that have gotten things used in the ceramic world I received a plethora of stuff when I first got my used kiln. All I really wanted was the kiln! But it came with so many molds and glazes. Molds/moulds were disposed of but I know that many dislike the idea of dumping toxic glazes just anywhere. SO Ive kept them and when things move I just push the box into another space. This time I took more notice of some and realized they were underglazes that went to ^6. Being that has been my target range I sifted through them all and took out those alike. I never really noticed before because I knew the old lady that once operated the stash of goods didnt fire midrange let alone high fire. So like the moulds I separated out those that I thought Id use here and there over time and mentally bid goodbye to the rest. Most of them are Ceramichrome Beauty Flos ^06-6. Like many of the glazes they seem to be like a scotch thats old enough to order its own scotch. Any think they still might be of use? Some are not fluid, some are. Reconstitute with water?

I see. Yeah you could definitely use the thermal mass for a place for drying pots. I came across a restaurant that lined their patio with it and used it for booth seating. I actually dug mine up :-/ My studio is very long and skinny ( 10ish by 40ish) and I decided after a few months to pull it up because the heat dissipated by the time it got to my far wall where my wheel is. The place where I put it was the only area where Theres no foundation. Its the same in the summer with cooling, I have fans but the flow stops by the middle. Its in an old pole barn. The other reason why I switched is because we do all our car work so we have a ton of waste oil from all my families oil changes. Plus I do smelt from time to time and I have need of a waste oil burner. Waste oil heaters can crank out heat so thats my future setup. I agree with the clean burn and low temp if any exhaust. Btw I used Kawool for my inner burn chamber and old salvaged fire brick from a torn down house. There is yet another option. Its basically very close to the same idea as the rocket stove. It was invented in Europe back in the day during a wood shortage. Its very decorative and Im sure you can fabricate one on your own. It uses very little wood and burns crazy efficient with long lasting heat. The Kachelofen. Masonry stoves for another name.

Ive built one. The thing behind rocket stoves is that they function primarily as radiant heat through the barrel top and the thermal mass duct line. Theyre designed to heat homes throughout the day and are not always advised for temporary used spaces. So if youre planning on starting your day and working through it then it could be a good choice. If youre planning to work a few short hours then it might not reach temp and give off enough heat to be comfortable while you work. ANother thing is that the way to get the best performance is to really plan your thermal mass to run through your space so that ALL the heat is utilized. The only down size to the thermal mass that I find is the fact that it can be a large space hog if you are limited. If metal barrels are free/easily acquired in your area some people save money by using half barrels for the thermal mass duct work instead of buying A/C / heating pipes. Another way for great and cheap heat is using a Double Barrel wood stove. You can build one yourself or you can acquire two metal barrels and use the Vogelzang Kit. Not only is the size of the burn drum great and can really give off a butt load of heat it takes advantage of the second upper drum to capture and radiate even more of the exhaust heat. You could also have a very small wood stove, maybe makeshift one out of a old propane tank, and make more of heat sync out by adding fins around it 4 or so inches, then enclosing the fins and blowing air through the enclosure. If you go small enough then you could get by with smaller diameter piping (metal supplier near by and that stuff comes cheap) and avoid the expense of double wall stove pipe except for when going through walls. A third way to utilize some easy heat, since you already mentioned you burn wood, is a coil water line around your already burning stove. Hook it up into a open end boiler set up. Closed setups build up pressure and you can risk explosions. You can run a pump to pump water through the line around the stove, then through a radiator device (old car radiator/old ac unit heat sync) which has a fan to blow off the heat, then the water dumps into a cooled reservoir where the pump is. Im sure you could probably get by with out the radiator and just run another line in front of a box fan. Or it could act like Hydronic floor heating without a fan. All is possible with a good DC bilge than you could hook to a solar setup to utilize free energy. Ive gone this route to heat my greenhouse at one point in time.

Is using a twenty dollar walmart blender out of the question? Ive done this time and time again. Ive screened local raw clay wet, dried, broken, and then add the chunks (1 to 1.5 inch in size) and blend. Ill take the blender and shake it as it blends to get it going. Blends to a find powder with no problem. I sift off the little bits and repeat. Works good, fast, and surprisingly enough the blender has yet to die.

Ive used Diamond blades on an angle grinder before. If you live next to a harbor freight you can get blades for cheaper than name brand at typical hardware store. Theyre not to bad and Ive gotten lots of use from them. Even angle grinders if you dont have one. I have 3 of the Chicago Electric 4 & 4 1/2 in ones and they last to my abuse on glass, metal, and rock. The only thing to take into account is making small short passes so you can etch away a little at a time without chipping. Im sure this goes without mentioning as well but slow and steady wins the race if water or oil is not involved to keep the temps down. Also depending on how hard the clay actually is you could use a wire brush attachment.

Molochite can be used to give a white grog look. Its very dominant at about 15% when the surface is wiped away just slightly. I have a ton of granite dust that I want to experiment with in a dark clay body like you. I cant find my test tiles with the molochite in it anywhere!! I think I trashed them because I wasnt happy with the body, not the molochite.

IF you really want someone that would know all about that you should email Jim Gottuso. I dont know if hes the type to give away recipes. Not saying he wouldnt but I cant speak for the guy. Hes a beer advocate and makes porcelain beer steins and mugs. Heres his blog. https://jimgottuso.wordpress.com/

So being Im broke and trying to work with what I have Im going to try a few different avenues. I have a ton of Highwaters orange stone. I also have some local clay Im going to use as a slip, terra cotta color of course. So anyways I wanted to just utilize what I have and contrast a bit between the different tones of earthenware colors with some white and black accents. I have some Bringles all purpose slip that I mixed up a while back as my "white" inclusion. I recently picked up two 1/4 pound portions of Masons Best Black Stain and their Onyx Black Stain to trial run with. I was wondering has anyone used that slip recipe as a good base for stain inclusions? The recipe I used was: EPK 20 OM 4 20 -or XX Saggar Neph syen 25 Silica 30 Gerst Bor 5 Bentonite 2 +10% Mason stain I also considering using this as my clear glaze, considering it fits well in the end. Got it from digifire. I liked their remarks of its over all strength. Plainsman Cone 6 M370 neph sy 18.30 ferro frit 3134 25.40 epk 19.60 wollan 6.90 silica 37.60 talc 2.3 Just trying to find recipes that have what I have, sometimes it seems like a good choice then I realize Im missing the last ingredient. In my limited knowledge Im not sure if Ill have issues with the black stain slip. I know Ive had Amacos black underglaze go blue because of the cobalt. I thought of formulating a black slip because I have more Manganese Dioxide than anyone really should but I dont feel comfortable with the "dangers" and questions as to whether its food safe etc.

Yep! It was a thread I started lol. I was using key shavings in clear glaze. I got deep greens at ^06 where the shavings were densely populated. At ^6 I got white, light green, and a lot of blue variegation. I did a simple test at ^06 once and incorporated it in clay and slip but no melting action happened. I never did that test for ^6. J baymore and others noted that the key composition is not primarily copper, nickle, or steel but can actually have a high amount of lead. You can also get further evidence on that because there is a lot of warnings out there to not let you infants suck on you keys as toys. So really it depends on what you fire and make. If you never do functional ware then have it! The lead vapors "infect" you kiln and will hang around. So if you only have one kiln and do/plan to do functional ware for food uses then I would opt out of such an experiment. You might risk contaminating you kill with lead and then in turn your wares.

Yeah I dont know if it undergoes any process before its crushed into different mesh sizes. Ill probably do a test bar on my next firing which is a bit further down the road. The only ventilation my kiln has is the peep holes. Its an old knob operated paragon. Ive never attempted to fire with the lid cracked. There is a metal hinge that will prop the lid about an inch but Ive only utilized it during lower temps to dry pieces.

So Ive been cleaning up my studio a bit and trying to get more productive these days since I left my job at the end of august. Being I dabble in some metal work with lost foam casting etc Ive come to realize I have a good amount of sand blasting sand that Ive used for investing my foam work. Its Black Diamond brand and a 30-60 mesh if Im not mistaken. I was curious if I could use it as a grog? From what I found out about the brand is that its a "low silica" media and comes from coal slag. I fire electric so would this possibly be bad for my elements if I were to add it to a clay body? I used the search function and it doesnt seem like a topic thats been covered before. Just thought Id throw it out there. Google only brings up pages about industry uses for coal slag. Am I wrong to think that the firing to ^6 the slag might emit too much carbon for my kiln?

Silk screen slip the logo onto the clay. Should be thin enough not to disrupt the dough shrinkage.