I have been having a lot of cracking/pinging in some of my bisque ware, and I am wondering if anyone has advice on what rate I should ramp down. I am firing in a gas kiln, 4 burners, and it's about 8 cubic feet. I am doing cone 05 for bisque, to then fire to cone 5, and using Laguna B-mix, no sand, and also Hagi porcelain. In the trouble shooting notes about the clay, they say one reason for cracks can be from cooling down to fast, what isn't there is any advice on how to go about the cool down. I usually don't control the cool down, I just let the kiln sitter trip, and maybe damper down.
What I plan to do with my next bisque fire is put a higher bar in the kiln sitter, a cone 06, keep my eye on the witness cones that will be cone 04 & 05, then when cone 05 bends I will turn down the kiln, not turn it off. My question is, about how much should I lower the temp, and in what sorta time increments? Thanks Sa