Sadhana Peterson

Kilns have unique personalities

I have just finished cleaning up all the pots from the last firing of my wood kiln, Sandy-Lucinda.
I have to say I am very excited that nearly every pot that came out of the kiln is lovely.

This was the 14th firing of the kiln since I built it in 2021.
I have been struggling to get it to full temperature (1300) for the last 12 firings.
Most of the previous firings I have had, I ended up needing to refire the work in my electric kiln to get the full glaze/ash melt.
This time we made it! Cone 10 down everywhere and cone 11 and 12 down in some spots! FANTASTIC!!

I have to say that the success was largely due to my firing companion Sandy Lockwood, eminent potter, designer of my kiln, mentor and friend, who came for the duration of the firing to help me nut out what was going wrong.

When we discussed the kiln build I had to admit that I hadn't been completely building to the specifications that Sandy had drawn up in the plans and I had made a bit of an adjustment to the hobs so that shorter wood could be used if that was all I could get.

I was alarmed to hear that my decisions would have decreased the air by 30%...... o-oh.....
Sandy said "You might have to get in there and cut those bricks back with an angle grinder and a cold chisel"...... my heart sank.
I nervously replied "Can we try to fire it this time with it as is? I don't think I have the time to do that before I pack the kiln."
Sandy graciously said "sure we can have a try."

So we were off the wood was stacked, the kiln packed, I made a big pot of soup for the weekend and Sandy arrived after warm up day on the 2nd day when the kiln was at about 500˚C.

The kiln proceeded to quietly rise over the day. Sandy and I sat by the kiln chatting as Sandy-Lucinda plodded on up to 1000˚C with cone 06 down by 6pm we shut down for the night had dinner and an early nights sleep.

The warm kiln must have warmed our resident water dragons as one raised its head over the chamber arch on the morning of Day 3

We sat by the kiln on Day 3 hoping things would get much hotter fairly quickly but alas, Sandy-Lucinda is far too much like her owner/builder to go forging ahead. Just like me, plodding was far more in tune with her character and so we sat, we chatted about both our kilns, we stoked , we drank coffee and tea, and we listened to ABC classic FM music. We stoked to Bach and Mozart and wondered why the kiln was taking such a long time to push those degrees up and those cones down. We tried so many variations of opening and closing all the mouse holes, the damper and the primary airs in various combinations. Still she was just slowly slowly rising....not stalling just slow.

The new chimney is wonderful. Pretty much no smoke. Flame out the top of the chimney but a very clean firing with good reduction in the kiln.

By mid afternoon my heart sank yet again when Sandy said "Sadhana it has got me beat, I don't know what we can do, we have tried everything"
So I sent Sandy off to have a rest and we decided that while she was away I would open everything up and see what happened and if it still wasn't working I would probably have to accept that I may have to make some not so small modifications to the kiln for future firings.

BUT..... the temp DID started to rise and rise...

Sandy -Lucinda wood kiln likes air..... just like her builder (I wear a CPAP machine at night in order to keep breathing while I am asleep).
Sandy-Lucinda likes everything open unlike her cousin 'The Pony' (Sandy's kiln), which is so similar in so many ways but those little differences make them very different kiln personalities. When Sandy returned from her rest she was surprised to see we had lift off.
Having worked out a pattern that the kiln and the fire was responding to, we kept going. Such a relief, such a learning curve.

The key thing was that we both knew each others kilns so we could toss around different ideas and possibilities and in the end we solved the puzzle together.

I feel so fortunate to have had this time with Sandy by the kiln.
I can't wait until next Autumn when I can fire again but with more understanding of Sandy-Lucinda's special needs.