raku or salt kilns

i have a cloth portable raku kiln. propane bottle & one burner.

~ and a perfect corner for a salt kiln but nothing built there yet...

see ya

steve

I have both, tho' the Raku Kiln is out on semi permanent loan. The salt is a one person wood-salt that I can fire on my own without exhausting myself, about 7 cube setting area.

Steve Bath UK

In article , Stephanie Coleman writes

How many of you have raku or salt kilns?

i guess the typical fiber raku kiln could also be turned into a salt kiln?

see ya

steve

What would you do? Just introduce salt at the peak of the firing?

that's what i was thinking. easy enough to try it one day soon...

~ on a friend's kiln!

see ya

steve

I wouldn't do it. The burning of the salt creates a vapor that coats the pottery, like a glaze and also the inside of the kiln. I also don't know how the salt would interact with the fiber. I went to a raku and salku workshop here in Georgia with Rick Berman who I guess is the guru of salku (and I don't get the difference between salt glazing and salku.) We built a kiln out of fire brick and loaded it up (and threw some charcoal in for good measure) and fired it for about 7 hours to cone 10. The we threw about 75 pounds of salt in (future firings wouldn't need as much) and kept firing,....we had test rings in that we checked on from time to time and when we liked the orange peel effect we shut the kiln down and let it cool for 24 hours. The effects were pretty stunning (in a primitive kind of way)...but you'd have to be a potter to appreciate them. Rick told us that the kilns really only last about 15-20 firings...then we suggested he just turn the bricks around, so maybe a few more.

you can hit cone 10 in that old electric kiln. use wood, or even propane with introduced ashes thru the fire.

a friend uses his cloth raku kiln for bisqueware fires. another has done cone 6 in his cloth kiln. just a bit further with the time.

see ya

steve