Firing blind

[Mark C.]

Well it happened

I was at near cone 10 when I looked in for the first look at my cones (cone 10/11) about 2290 on my digital pyro. This is my 35 cubic foot car kiln-I had just turned off my smaller 12 cubic foot glaze fire in updraft (i'm doing both kilns same day  gklaze fires all this year )

The cone pad had fallen over-nosed dived down sometine during fire.Never had this happen-I made the pads so its all in my court

Now in the past I have blown up cones and discoverd it at red heat and been able to slip with a small anglke iron a new set of cones  in the 4 inch diameter spy plug extremly slowing without blowing them up.

But this at near end point is way different as the time temp has already gone by. so no way to put another cone set in that will be accurate So I look to my log book and see that the end point I shoot for is a soft cone 11 which has about a 40 degree spread in past 6 glaze fires. I pick a middle zone and fire to that and by my gut feeling .

So tonight I'm eating fresh albacore I caught on Monday and beans and squash from our garden wondering about how this kiln load will look in am. I usually am not to concerned about it but this seat of the pants fire is way out of the box. Time will tell. I resisted looking in with a flashlight-I'll take my lumps in am all at one time-underfired or overfired we shall see.

If this was easy everyone would be doing it.

[Pres]

Firing by the seat of your pants is tough. Even with a cone pack at cone 6 if something happened to the pack I could estimate the heat color/temperature. However the further the kiln got above 5 to 6 the colors are so bright beyond yellow white that you can't really gauge by color. Tough without cones! 

Good luck with the firing, I would expect a few slumps if nothing else.

 

best,

Pres

[Bill Kielb]

1 hour ago, Mark C. said:

Time will tell. I resisted looking in with a flashlight-I'll take my lumps in am all at one time-underfired or overfired we shall see.

If this was easy everyone would be doing it.

I think based on experience and prior records you will likely be fine unless something in there is fairly range sensitive. I Hope it works out for you.

[Mark C.]

Well my gut was right and the load was beautiful.

Here are the results

Now if only the predicted rain this weekend on our local show will go away

Edited September 16, 2022 by Mark C.

[Pres]

Marvelous, what they mean when science fails and art keeps on (paraphrased).

 

best,

Pres

[Babs]

Kiln gods on yourside this time. Along with records and a wee bit of experience.

 

[LinR]

Wow!  Your experience shows.  Please explain the hanging thingy in pix #3.  Lin

[Mark C.]

2 hours ago, LinR said:

Wow!  Your experience shows.  Please explain the hanging thingy in pix #3.  Lin

Thats a urchin spine wind chime (tropical urchins which are thinker and heavy duty) I have had it up there maybe 45 years now? It brushes the top of my car kiln door  when I push it in or out so its handy for reference as well as nice sounds in heavy wind in kiln area 30x30 open to one side (south) I also have a metal shark one nearby as well as a glass one I traded for a few decades ago. This coming May marks my 50th year on this property. Its known for pottery around these parts

[LeeU]

22 hours ago, Mark C. said:

Here are the results

Geeze louise, I get exhausted just looking at all that work! And stacking the huge kiln! And everything that went before and will come after! Tells me I made the right choice going into a totally different work-a-day world rather than profesional ceramics, which was my intention until I got to the fork in the road. 

 

[Bam2015]

Quite impressive!

[oldlady]

have only seen kilns of this size and loads like this in shared studios where lots of potter's work is on the shelves.  incredible amount of work for one person.  i bow to your superior ability, as always.

please tell me that you leave the shelves in place between firings.   even though they are advancers, stacking those shelves must take (or have taken) many hours.  in just this kiln.

Edited September 16, 2022 by oldlady

[Mark C.]

All my kilns get restacked every fire. I never leave shelves in. Serval reasons-1st it less efficient and the car kiln is very efficient . Second I load all diffent sizes in every fire and -thats true in the bisque (I bisque in this car kiln as well) . Third I live in earthquake country and have lost loads so no shelves stacked means no broken shelves. I load this kilnabout every two weeks this year one bisque followed two days later with a glaze-same with the 12 cubic updraft (20 fires so far only counting glaze fires) and the car kiln is up to 17 glaze fires and 17 bisque fires I think this year.

[Denice]

Great firing,  I have never considered how hard it is to read the color at C11.   I  learned to read the color when firing 50 years ago,  the manual that came with my paragon kiln suggested you learn that skill.   Sometimes my husband will be hanging around when I am firing,  he  usually wants me to turn off the kiln, he thinks it is firing to long.   I explain to him it is a packed kiln and the color isn't  close.    You would think after 50 years he would trust my firing skills.     Denice

[Mark C.]

Color ar cone 11 is brutal. 

[Pres]

On 9/15/2022 at 8:18 PM, LeeU said:

Geeze louise, I get exhausted just looking at all that work! And stacking the huge kiln! And everything that went before and will come after! Tells me I made the right choice going into a totally different work-a-day world rather than profesional ceramics, which was my intention until I got to the fork in the road. 

 

There is labor, and labor of love. . . . with the one you never have to work a day of your life!