Very New to Clay. Need Help with Firing Temps!

[oldlady]

thank you, min, for recognizing the right of the original poster to just get an  answer to the question, not digress to the point of driving that person away from the forum entirely.   sometimes the technical minutia  just make a beginner feel inadequate and stupid, so uncomfortable that they leave.

now, who will move all the answers that do not help the OP?

[Min]

@aljmarr, the posts up to the first one by Magnolia Mud Research are directly related to your question. After that one the thread starts getting a bit more technical and goes in a direction that may add confusion to your topic as OldLady suggested.

In summation to your original question, unless extensive testing is done, both clay and glazes should be fired to their recommended cone. As Liam said, if you are using cone 10 clay then for functional pots it should be fired to cone 10. This means using cone 10 glazes (unless you are willing to experiment and test). Bisque firing is done at low temperatures, in the range of 010 - 04 usually, 04 has become quite common in recent years.

If you fire your cone 10 clay to lower temperatures it will likely be immature and prone to leaking and not as robust as if fired to cone 10.

@oldlady, point taken but I'm going to leave this thread as is. I think you offer great advice and as a group we need to bear in mind the OP's knowledge base and answer appropriately. I enjoy going off on a tangent as much as anyone but let's try starting new threads when appropriate to do so.