We did it :-)

We finished the firing today at 1.30pm. Really couldn't have hoped for a better firing in a new kiln.

We started packing on Tuesday morning. Steve Parry arrived in time for coffee at 10.30 and after unloading etc. we started to pack, it felt a bit like being confronted with a massive blank canvas and then being handed a small paintbrush. We seemed to have loads of work and a huge space in which to fit it all.

So, starting from the back the first pieces were placed, every pot being placed on a wadding mix of fireclay sand and sawdust to stop it stickng to the floor. The kiln broke down nicely into sections: upper and lower in front of the chimney flues and then a row of larger pieces close to the side stoke grate.

 We then placed two shelves on each side with a gap down the middle where taller pieces were placed and bridged by another shelf.

Packing continued on the Wednesday with a day of constant heavy rain until the kiln was full.

The door was bricked up late wednesday night and the kiln lit early Thursday morning.

Thursday was spent sorting out wood stacks, chain sawing and slowly building the coals, by the evening the fire was fully on the grate and we started feeding through the top stoke hole. Many thanks to Joe and Carl who did the graveyard shift on Thursday night. By the morning we had a flame visible in the chimney and about 1260 C at the front and 1000 at the back.

A rather bad picture of Jo. camera shake not influenced by the beer but by bad light and a camera phone. Friday was spent coninuing to build the temperature in the chamber and cutting more wood stacks. We had lots of visitors on Friday to see what was going on and another big thanks to Richard for spending the day helping to move wood and stoke. On Friday evening Kazu arrived and got stuck into stoking. Below is a nice pic of him sitting infront of the kiln.

As you can see we had a strong flame from the chimney now after each stoke. Many thanks go to him for doing that late shift. Early Saturday morning we began side stoking as well as front stoking with the front temperature at around 1400C (orton cone 15 flat), the back was a little cooler but began to climb after we realised that I had forgotten to seal the back stoke air inlet under the grate. The kiln had been sucking in cold air to the back for most of the firing. Having sealed this, the temperature began to climb, and by 1pm was around 1280/1300C. At 1.30 we decided to end as we a had achieved and held good temperature and all the work we could see was very glassy from all the ash which had gone through the kiln. Many thanks to Bee for helping move wood around on the last morning. Below is a short clip of Steve stoking the back of the kiln and me the front on the last day filmed by my 10 year old daughter

The whole kiln was sealed after one final look through the front.

There are a few slight modifications to be done mainly building an active damper into the chimney but apart from that the kiln fired like a dream. Now comes the long wait for the whole structure and all it's contents to cool down. We used 6 palletts of soft wood (about 3 cord) + 3 bundles of hard wood. Although the kiln fired well it won't be until we can actually see the work that we can start to analyse the overall success. I'll post again when I unpack. Time for a rather large glass of wine I think :-)