Once firing

[Mirrored-K-Studio]

How early can greenware be fired? I always wait until bonedry but was recently told that l I can and should load my wood fired kiln at leather hard. 

[JohnnyK]

IMO bone dry would be preferable. However, if you're looking to see what kind of effects you can get when your pieces explode due to the moisture content in you leather hard pots, go right ahead and load the leather hard stuff in the kiln. 

[Mirrored-K-Studio]

Thanks. That's what I thought.  I am in the process of building a wood fired kiln and the builder told me TOLD me to put them in at leather hard. I questioned him and he said it again.  It left me questioning myself. 

[Kelly in AK]

No good reason to put work in a kiln leather hard if you don’t have to. There can be time constraints, I get that and have loaded many a less-than-bone-dry piece.

Aside from the obvious risk of blowing up work, things are more likely to crack when rushed in the final drying stages. Digital kiln controllers have reduced my explosions to zero, but rushing drying causes cracks that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Perhaps your builder has a rationale most of us don’t understand, there may be more to the story. If it takes a month to load your kiln, you might as well store the pots there than on shelves in your studio. Save yourself the trouble of moving them one more time. You’re single firing, if you load right after the glazing is done the pots will not be dry at all. They can dry in the kiln before you start a firing.