Kiln building
The kiln is of a "sevres"
type with a single firing box also called "bourry box"
by anglo-saxons.
I built it alone during
the month of june 2001, using about 2400 bricks second hand but
not free and with mortar suck to them so they had to be cleaned
one by one.
The kiln is built on adapted
plans from the Robert Sanderson and Coll Minogue ones, modifications
were made to suit my needs and the size of my kiln shelves.
I'd like here to thanks
my good friend Andrew Stewart from Australia who made this enterprise
possible.
Here is the site as it appeared
before the building, it was a garage built on a concrete slab
which made things a lot easier, at this stage I only had the pilars
of the future roof erected.
Here is the base with the
pilars holding the throat arch in place, on the 90 concrete blocks
upstanding will rest the chamber and the chimney base .
Seen here from the fire
box, the door and the throat are in place with the chamber floor
also done.
Seen here from the front
towards the flues with the shelves laid out for check of correctness.
Seen from 3/4 front with
the whole base done, the flues and the decompression chamber.
The fire box is finished,
I start the chamber itself, I haven't used any mortar.
Seen from 3/4 back with
the decompression chamber and the base of the bagwall.
At this stage I start the
building of the roof with the precious help of a local carpenter,
from june to mid-july it is the rainy season in Japan and the
tarp wouldn't be enough to protect from the weather.
The roof and the kiln progress
at the same time, the arch form is in place.
The roof is well on its
way and we're nailing the corrugated iron .
The difficulty rest on making
sure that the nails get into the frame.
At last it's done .
The roof is finished.
The arch is done, I hope
it'll hold.
The chimney base is in place.
The arch is finished, I
will put a layer of ceramic fiber protected by a metal sheet for
insulation purpose.
Last hand to the chimney.
Last course of bricks...
Here we go.
The finished chimney with
the bracing.
The fire box with its lid
in place so heavy that I had to use a pulley to open it.
Finished with the kiln shelves
coated with 2/3 alumina 1/3 kaolin to prevent sticking by the
salt.
Ready to fire wicket closed.
It will take me 2 missed
firings to get it right ( the temperature doesnt go over 1068
and the 2nd time the bagwall fell in) to obtain a good firing
with cone 10 flat and interesting results with the salt.
Now the kiln works well
with good salt and firings going over the 1300 degrees mark in
less than 14 hours for a capacity of a little less than a m3.
I fire with local wood,
Japanese cypres or cryptomeria but the results are much better
with pinewood when I can get some.
There is a sawmill in the
village and it is easy to get offcuts but the wood is not free
and not dry.
For firing on the hobs it
is not much of a problem even a fairly wet wood burns well but
the calorific power of the cypres is weak.
Please let us know your comments and suggestions at the following
e-mail:luc@ventdesel.com