Alyosha Posted January 2, 2022 Report Share Posted January 2, 2022 Hello, My name is Antonin, I am planning to build a kiln in my backyard in the city near Paris. I managed to order 450 heavy bricks and 150 ifb that'll arrive in the end of january. First I had in mind making a philosopher's kiln from Steve Mills of around 360 bricks then thought the firings might lack "fire marks" like ash, also I was concerned about the risk of smoke as well as the visible flame leaving the chimney. I discovered the Sasukenei kiln and am quite thrilled about it however people who have posted examples on the internet have made rather big versions of it, at least 2000 bricks like the one by Lauren Scherback which is 2 m long I believe. https://www.claymaven.com/Kiln and Firing Process/Sheehan_drawings/index.htm The book from the kiln creator Sensei Masakazu Kusakabe and Marc Lancet Japanese Woodfired Ceramics is out of print but there are a few drawings and a youtube video made by Cerdeira pottery about it's Sasukenei firing. With 600 bricks is only a 60 cm long Sasukenei kiln possible then ? Can the tall brick chimney be partially mady of a steel tube instead? Bien cordialement, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted January 3, 2022 Report Share Posted January 3, 2022 4 hours ago, Alyosha said: With 600 bricks is only a 60 cm long Sasukenei kiln possible then ? Can the tall brick chimney be partially mady of a steel tube instead? Do you mean the length of the stacking area? If so, then yes, that would be theoretically possible. A 60cm square stacking space would be functional. Ideally, when designing a kiln, you want to start with the size of kiln shelf you plan to use and go from there. If you want it to fire without smoke, then you have to have sufficient air for the volume of wood, as well as a long enough path from wood to flue for everything to get burned out before it leaves the chimney. Once a kiln gets too small, it becomes difficult to stoke the right amount of wood without overloading it, and the draw becomes more difficult to control. You also need to be able to burn logs of a certain size, otherwise they burn too quickly and you have to stoke constantly, which is exhausting, and a difficult way to build heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyosha Posted January 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2022 Hi neilestrick, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyosha Posted January 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2022 The 60cm were for the all kiln dividing the size of Lawren Scherback's kiln from 2000 bricks to 600 bricks, her kiln isn't in fact a Sasukenei but planned by Sheehan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyosha Posted January 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2022 The Sasukenei kiln has different staking place throughout the kiln. So for the philosphers kiln to become smokeless it'll need to be a longer kiln with a taller chimney ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 3, 2022 Report Share Posted January 3, 2022 If you can get your hands on Fred Olsen's "The Kiln Book" it would help tremendously with your kiln build. There are several principles that have to be adhered to when building a kiln in the type youre looking to construct. Wood fired kilns must have a certain ratio of size on the inlets vs the exit. Downdraft versus updraft versus crossdraft all have differing principals to make them work correctly. if you keep to the principals in his book you should have no problem in getting your kiln to fire to temperature . with wood keep this one principal in mind...... in order to increase temperature more OXYGEN is needed than fuel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyosha Posted January 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2022 Thank you Russ. I have the first part of the book so I should have a look. About kiln construction, I got about 20 bricks out of a refractory heater today, my guess is that they could be used amongst the other bricks. What would your advice be please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 2 hours ago, Alyosha said: About kiln construction, I got about 20 bricks out of a refractory heater today, my guess is that they could be used amongst the other bricks. What would your advice be please? If you don't know what temp they're rated for, only use them on the exterior of the kiln. They look to be pretty high in iron, so they probably aren't as refractory as a typical firebrick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyosha Posted January 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 Yes indeed they are quite red. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 My guess is those red bricks are pretty low temp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyosha Posted January 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 Thanks Marc, Guess I can use them on there side as the foundations under the kiln to prevent humidity alike hollow concrete blocks. There might be a risk however that they compromise the all of the kiln's structure if they are moved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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