What Are Your Pit Fire Must Do's Or Must Haves?

[Rebekah Krieger]

I am going to throw a few pieces specific for pit firing. I understand wood, sawdust, and some organic material are helpful. I have seem some people use various things in foil saggar and some burnish and or use terra sig.  (on videos)

What are your favorite things to use in a pit fire or in a foil saggar? Do you have any tips with photos? Thanks! There are so many ways to do this I would love to hear what everyone does. 

 

Can you add horse hair to a pit fire pot before it is cooled completely or is it only reserved for raku items?

[Benzine]

First off, this isn't so much, what to put in, as prep. I recommend a clay body that can tolerate the shock, of a pit firing, like a Raku clay, or similarly grogged body. Next, I suggest you bisque, said wares, first. The first pit fire, I did, I lost almost everything, and those that survived, had a lot of spalling. The firings after, I bisqued the wares, and I got the nice smoke effects, without any losses.

 

In terms of what to put in the firing, copper fillings, are good, as is plant root killer, which contains copper sulfate.

 

I would also suggest burnishing the wares, then polishing the surfaces with wax, post fire, to really enhance the effects.

[Colby Charpentier]

Various sized particles of material will help create more interesting lines on the pot.

 

Additives like copper carbonate will add some color.

 

Burnishing definitely worthwhile, wax for post-fire helps too...

 

Pit firing is pretty versatile in terms of the effects, so you'll see different set-ups everywhere. A good approach would be to identify what you like, and work to duplicate the results.

[Rebekah Krieger]

I have a single box of earthenware that I have no intention of making in the kiln. (i use mid fire porcelain and a mid fire light brown stoneware) The earthenware was purchased about 2 years ago before i decided on a clay body.  I was planning to bisque but I have not thought about the clay body's ability to handle thermal shock.  Thank you for the idea of polishing with wax in addition to the burnishing. I have never used a terra sig before, do any of you enjoy using that? 

[Up in Smoke Pottery]

Rebekah,  Benzine is correct a good thermal shock clay works best, but I have successfully pitfired nearly all forms of clay from cast ceramic pieces to stoneware.  A raku body would work excellent, but try to find one with not so much grog, it makes burnishing easier.  We use a "universal" body called Chad's Bod from Dakota Potters Supply it has a great survival rate, easy to smooth and minimal pop offs.  We also use terra sig, much easier than burnishing.  We have found out we have gotten the best results with combination of some sort of iron, copper, and salt.  They can be standard items such as old nails, copper wire, and table salt to more of a chemical variety: Iron oxide, copper carb, and ferric chloride.  There are numerous things you can burn in the pit for colorants, we have tried many including cat/dog foods, bacon grease, banana peels, potato peels, coffee grounds, multivitamins, left over bones, egg shells, and many more.

 

We build the pit piling everything in and lit it afire, once it cools clean it up.  We don't want to loose temp by adding more wood or risk breaking a pot when a new board is place upon it.

 

Foil Saggars are a bit different, they can be done in the pit but we have melted the foil on many attempts so we now do them in a raku kiln.  For the foil saggars, you need a solution inside the saggar that will react with the foil when heat is applied, most common is ferric chloride.

 

Great sources  of info are Sumi Von Dassow, any of her books,videos, or her website. Also Google "clay monk journal"  its a great blog on his experiements in pit firing.  Of course you can visit our website and FB page for process photos and colorant guide.

[Rebekah Krieger]

Thanks Chad- That was very useful 

[alabama]

Hey,

     My most haves for firing is:

 

Mostly dry pottery, dry sticks, fire starter kit or match, shade, food and water, my dogs.

 

Alabama

[Benzine]

Chad,

 

I have used a lo fire white body, for pit firing, but they were bisqued first. There have been several threads around here lately, that discussed pit firing from the green state, and I would definitely recommend a Raku body in that case. Honestly, I am having trouble keeping track of what I and others have said, in which topic...

[Up in Smoke Pottery]

Benzene, I agree raku body is best and the multiple threads are hard to keep track of.  We bisque everything first.

[Benzine]

Chad, by bisquing first, I had no losses. even with the low fire body. Gradual temperature increase, and a gradual decrease. Like many things with ceramics, it's all about patience....which suuuuucks.....hehe.

[Rebekah Krieger]

Chad,

 

I have used a lo fire white body, for pit firing, but they were bisqued first. There have been several threads around here lately, that discussed pit firing from the green state, and I would definitely recommend a Raku body in that case. Honestly, I am having trouble keeping track of what I and others have said, in which topic...

sorry  

 

 

I thought it was a pretty wild coincedence that there were several pit firing threads.  I totally would have stuck my question in another thread had I seen it. (even at the risk of being labeled a thread hijacker which I tend to do often) 

[Up in Smoke Pottery]

I have no patience, pile it up, set it a blaze, melt my shoes emptying it out.  our breakage is minimal usually.  maybe I'll have to slow down a little for the next firing.

 

Rebekah, no worries each of the pit fire threads have slowly evolved into each other.

[Min]

I haven't done pit firing since going to school so maybe methods have changed since then but when we did it we burnished the pieces and bisqued to around 017 or 018. Pots fired to 06'ish range lost their burnish. We used a smooth high fire body that had a fair bit of yellow iron in it, went a nice dark red in the parts that didn't get smoked. We would set up the pit, light it and loosely cover it with a piece of metal, and leave it until it's cool.  I've also seen pots pit fired from red earthenware that contained mica, the sparkles from the mica contrast nicely with the smoked parts of the pot. 

[Benzine]

Min, I think I read that you can fire to cone 010, before you lose the burnish.