Yesterday we fired the salt kilnand in between kiln checking we helped to harvest
we picked rasberries, blackberries and mulberries too.
All supervised by several cats
We had a beautiful day on the whole. This was taken just before a rain shower
Sunset over the Blorenge Mountain, as we salted the kiln
going well! It has a 12 cubic foot packing capacity and we fire with propane gas
crash cooling to 1000 centigrade.The kiln went on at 7.30 am (after being gently fired until it stopped steaming the previous night) and was at 550 degrees by 10 am. We finished salting at 7.20 pm, then it has a clean burn for a while after all the reduction. After a good soak at temperature, just under 1300, it is crash cooled to just over 1000.
Then we brick up all the spyholes and burner ports and clam up all the cracks with a fireclay mix to cool gently from there down.
Now roll on Tuesday evening, the first time when we can all be there to unpack!!
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2 comments:
Just been looking through your blog at your really beautiful photos. Lovely landscapes and sky photos, and lots of yummy produce too! Isn't it wonderful when you can harvest fresh tomatoes, apples and pears from the garden! The smell of fresh tomatoes that are still warm from the sun is something that you never can get in a supermarket! Hope the kiln firing has gone well for you. Out of interest.. are you using insulating firebrick in the salt kiln?? Have you coated it with something, and is it behaving OK with the salt fumes?
It is an inner layer of very HTIs- ex steelworks I think, and an outer layer of hard brick.
It is behaving beautifully, the inside is well coated with salt. This firing was very even, the main problem was with shelves spalling onto pots.
We're thimking of adding a catenary arch, but that wont be soon.
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