Paragon B88B

I just bought a Paragon B88B Kiln. I was hoping to use it to fire Pottery, but based on the limited information I have found on the 'net, it seems to be more suited to "greenware", whatever that is. Can someone tell me what I can expect to use this Kiln for?

Thanks

James

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james
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[Greenware is pottery before it's fired. So you should be okay there. Once it's fired, it's called "bisqueware". You then glaze it - much easier than glazing greenware, which takes up water from the glaze and self-destructs - and fire it again, after which you can call it "earthenware" if it's fired under cone 5, or "stoneware" if it goes over that temperature. Paragon should be able to tell you the maximum cone your kiln is good for - some electric kilns go to cone 10, a relatively high stoneware temperature; others max out at cone 6.]

Andrew Werby

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Andrew Werby

Your best bet is to call or email paragon for information on how high this kiln fires to. From what I can find it is an old kiln but that should not prevent you from using it to do pottery. Greenware is unfired clay so saying that this kiln is suited for 'greenware' doesn't really say much.

You use the kiln to turn 'greenware' into fired clay - either an intermediate state called bisqueware which is clay that is fired to a low enough temperature that it will not dissolve but will be porous and easily hold glaze, or the finished state where the clay has reached maturity (more or less - you can always do the highest firing you are going to and then follow with another firing that is a lower temperature where you add luster, decales, etc.). You are probably not going to be doing high fired pottery with this kiln. However there is a great deal you can do with low fired ceramics and you might be able to do mid-fire which is done a lot now. You can also use this kiln to do glass work.

In both cases you will need to know how to time things and how to heat your kiln. You can't for example just turn it on high and run it for 12 hours. There is a lot to understand about firing and it is something you should not do blindly. I would really recommend that you take a local community pottery class or read many books before you dive in.

Reply to
DKat

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