2016-03-19 - Saturday - Wood kiln firing & movies

Saturday was the big day. We fired Hal's groundhog kiln and the pots got hot.

I've stated this here many times: the firing of a wood kiln is like a barn raising. It's a community effort, and we always have the nicest community at the firings.

It's a whole day of watching, adjusting, and feeding the fire. When you first do a stoke the smoke is black out of the chimney and the temperature rises. As the smoke clears the temperature starts to slide back down, so it's time for more stoking. It can be a cat and mouse game at times where the temperature plateaus for a while and you have to be able to read the signals to push past it.

I am learning more about this process every time I'm at the firing, but I will leave reading the kiln to Hal and Tara. They understand it's language and know what it needs.

Once the cones are down we hold it at temp for a bit of a soak and then it's time to get some dramatic photos and seal up the door. It takes several days to cool down. When it's fired on Saturday it's opened on Tuesday.

Thanks again (as always) to Hal and Corine for letting me be a part of a wonderful event. Thanks also to Tara, Chad, Dave, and Mark for making it fun and keeping the conversation lively.

Mark stoking the flames.

Stoking the kiln

I can't stress the extreme nature of the stoking enough. Right at the stoke holes those temperatures are above 2000 F. Notice how Mark pokes one piece of wood with another to get it out of the way and the piece he pokes it with is instantly combusting. We wear heavy welding gloves and don't spend any more time than necessary in front of the stoke holes. We have fun, but we're very careful.

During a stoke.

After the soak.

I finally went to see the "Deadpool" movie that night at the 10:00 pm showing. I was confused when the person at the ticket booth asked me which seat I wanted. Apparently when they renovated the theater in December they started doing assigned seating.

I stared blankly at the seating chart for a moment trying to process this new information. Rows A and B were available, and there was one seat in row F (the last row), so I took that one. I noticed there didn't seem to be a lot of seats in the room.

When I got into the theater I was shocked to find big, red, electric recliners where the seats had been. A quick count showed that there were only 49 seats in the room now. It was a surreal experience before the movie even started.

I really enjoyed the film, but I will tell you it was very crude and not for everyone.

My feet and one from the guy next to me.

A better photo from jetmag.com

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September 14 - Loading the kiln

After catching up last month I have fallen woefully behind again.  I have too many things to make one big catch-up post so I am going to throw these posts up quickly to get current but not leave out any fun stuff.  Hang with me, here we go.

On Friday we loaded the wood kiln at Hal and Corine's place in Lawndale.  Hal climbs in the groundhog kiln and loads the pots using a very sophisticated transport system:  a laundry basket that we slide back and forth over the firebox on two boards.  Hey, it works.

There were a lot of pots to load but he got them all in and the basket made many trips.  After that, it was time to shovel the old ash and charcoal out of the firebox so we could fill it up again when we fired it.

After everything was done it was time to go home.  We'd be back tomorrow to heat it up.

Hal loading the kiln.

Chad taking a bucket of ash from Hal.

Hal digging out the ash.

Yup, it's really Hal.

You can see him standing in the firebox.

That's a hard-working man.

That's a finely loaded kiln.

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March 10 - Firing!

Saturday was firing day!  We fired the kiln in record time (10 hours).  I got there a bit later than I had planned, but hit the time when more stoking was required so it worked out pretty well.

Stoking the kiln is a team sport since you can't spend much time in front of the firebox.  When the door is opened we each walk up and shove a slab into the kiln, stepping out of the way for the next person to put their slab in.  I was worried about missing a step and causing problems since I was new to the process, but did okay.  (A slab is the outside of a log that gets sliced off at the saw mill.)

We were going to 2380F and in front of the firebox the temperature was over 2000F for most of the afternoon.  It seems counter intuitive, but you need to wear long sleeves, long (thick) pants, a hat with a bill, and of course, gloves.  There is a zone directly in front of the kiln where six inches is the difference between clothing that feels hot and lost hair and/or singed skin.  Being the newbie, I had several run-ins with the heat.

The first time was when I pushed a slab in and when it didn't go in all the way my instinct was to reach over and shove it with my hand.  Big mistake.  Once I crossed that six inch perimeter my leather glove was so hot I had to take it off.  It got that way in about one and a half seconds.

At 2100F pushing a slab into the kiln causes the slab to ignite instantly.  It's very strange to see that happen.   Push the slab in, immediately pull it back and it's ablaze like it had been in the fire for ten minutes.

Corine spoiled us with some great boiled peanuts (one of my favorites!), a hearty rigatoni pasta bake, and a wonderfully moist pineapple cake.  Everything was delicious and very much appreciated.

We ran the kiln up to 2380F, held it there and when Hal checked the cone packs cone 12 was down in the front and the one in the back was bent so we stopped stoking and closed it up.  Now it will cool until Tuesday or Wednesday before Hal climbs back inside and unloads it.

After the kiln was finished Corine, Hal, Corwin and I went to the back porch to sit (I'd forgotten how to do it by then) and have a cold beer.  It's a nice time to relax after a lot of hot work.

Corine and Hal are some of the nicest people I know (and I know a lot of nice people!) and I always look forward to spending time with them.  Thanks for a wonderful experience.

I can't wait until September for the next firing.

Dave, Chad, and Hal waiting for the next round.

One hot place.

Chad and Corwin stoking.

Getting our blast on.
That fire coming out of the chimney is coming all the way
from the firebox in the front of the kiln.

After the last stoke we can see some pots.

That jug on the left is mine.

My jug is still in the flames...

...and glowing red hot.

They're all glowing.
That tall one is Adrienne's.

This is Cookie.

She's beautiful, 

but getting her to stay still for a picture is a challenge.
Cookie is a sweetie.

Corine calms her.

Corwin enjoying the calm.

Hal, enjoying the sit down after a job well done.

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March 9 - Kiln loading

Friday I had the opportunity to help load the ground hog kiln.  I'm glad Hal went inside since I don't think I could have spent that much time scrunched up in there.  We were on the outside handing him work, shelves, bricks, and cones.

It's quite an ingenious method of loading the kiln.  Since the firebox is so deep, two boards are placed across it and we used a laundry basket to slide the pots in on the boards.  Once Hal had most of the kiln full, we took the boards out and he stood in the firebox to place the final pots on the kiln floor.

Chad came by to help load along with Hal, Corine, and me.  Though there were a lot of pots, it was a fairly quick process using the bridge method.

Saturday morning Hal and Corine will light the fire at about 5:30 am.  Chad is planning on arriving at around 8:30 and I hope to be there by about 10:30 since I've got a couple of stops first.  I've been told it starts slowly and the real work happens in the afternoon when we have to really stoke it to bring it to temperature.

Hal loading pots.

A pot.

More pots outside waiting their turn.

Corine and Chad sending pots in to Hal.

The loading continues.

More pots.

He's worked his way from the back to the front
and is now standing in the firebox.

The cone packs.

The finished load, just waiting for the heat.

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March 3 - Jugs

I've had an exciting invitation to participate in firing a ground hog kiln. This kiln is fired using wood as fuel and creates a unique surface on the pots.  My friends, Hal and Corine own the kiln and have given me this great opportunity.

Since the ground hog kiln is a traditional type of North Carolina kiln I thought I would make some traditional pots.  I have never made a large jug before so I thought this would be the perfect time to try.  As you can see from the photo, I ran out of clay on the third one and didn't have enough to make a proper rim so I have two jugs and a pot.  Live and learn.  The trick is to get these handled, dried, bisqued, and glazed before Friday.

Wish me luck.

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