shrubsky

You can certainly do primitive firing and pit firing, without having to do any building. Or, build a mud kiln. Just don't expect to get higher than cone 06. Go check out Andy Ward's channel on youtube. You could also do saggar pit firing, but that's not something Andy covers.

I just sent what is sure to be a curious e-mail to the County. Let's see if and what they respond. I imagine this is not a request they get very often. :-)

I'm not young, but neither am I yet elderly, and I do love fire. :-) I've seen a video on youtube from someone who built that two-firebox kiln. I think I'm more interested in that kiln from the UK that I linked above (single fire box, eight hour firing, supports soda and salt firing), but again I am not an expert and not dead set on anything yet.

Sounds like I should be deliberate in how I ask the question of the County, lest they jump straight to the worst possible answer. I'm less concerned about my neighbors, we're all pretty easy going, but I will talk with them before I get serious about this.

I'll have to ask the County about any regulations on wood kilns. I hadn't considered that -- thanks for the tip. That might put the brakes on pretty quickly. I can live with just salt or soda firing, if a small / fast kiln can't achieve wood ash glaze. The video I referenced earlier did that on a fast updraft kiln, so I'm hoping that's in the realm of the reasonable. For wood ash I can always sign up for when they fire that anagama I mentioned! That one only fires twice a year, and there's a sign-up lottery, which is part of why I'm looking into setting up my own thing.

I'm not married to any particular style. My main criteria are that it be small enough that I can build it and fit it in my back yard, and that I can fire it in one long day. Cone 6 or 7 is enough for me. The option of doing salt or soda firing would be nice, but not strictly required. This one looks like a nice compact design https://youtu.be/6pdFWixTXiQ , but the only type I've seen personally was a large anagama that takes 48 hours to fire. I'm not building anything yet, just doing research. I haven't yet found anyone nearby with a smallish wood kiln I can visit.

Any suggestions on a book (or PDF) with detailed instructions on building a wood-fired kiln? So far I've found a lot of things that are not detailed, out of print and unavailable, or a plagiarism.