[Mei]

Hi every one,
We fire pottery in wood kilns in Taiwan. one of the wood kilns we built reached to 1516 degree Celsius days ago. The temperature set up the highest record of wood kiln so far in Taiwan. We would like to know the highest record for wood kilns in the world.
Thanks a lot.

[justanassembler]

Mei, on 04 November 2012 - 09:00 AM, said:

Hi every one,
We fire pottery in wood kilns in Taiwan. one of the wood kilns we built reached to 1516 degree Celsius days ago. The temperature set up the highest record of wood kiln so far in Taiwan. We would like to know the highest record for wood kilns in the world.
Thanks a lot.

what cone did you guys actually have down? Was that just a momentary measurement on a pyrometer? I think the highest I've seen was cone 15 down in the front of a train kiln--it was a mess.

[JBaymore]

I and many others I know in the USA fire some work to to Orton cone 14. My friends in Japan regularly fire a huge portion of their work to Orton cone 14. My personal peak pyrometer reading ever (high quality Omega Engineering unit, calibrated, type S) is 2402 F.

Many people in the USA are using pyrometers with type K thermocouples... because they are cheap..... so I would take any readings you hear from folks here with a bit of "a grain of salt" (meaning not necessarily all that accurate) because above about 2350 F the readings become unreliable and over time there is significant drift in their accuracy. If they are not uising Type S thermocouples.... the number thay have is kind of meaningless in a "competition" kind of situation.

best,

........................john

[TainanDerek]

Thank you for your information


This is Derek from Taiwan. The kiln that had reached 1516℃was built by my master, Mr. Lin. As he doesn't speak English, I am here to respond for him.

Mr. Lin uses type R thermocouples as there’s only type K and R in Taiwan.He haven’t used any cone for over 10 years as he tried type R thermocouples,cone 16, PCTR, and Infrared thermometer once in his horizontal wood firing kiln ten years ago. The cone melted into liquid, and both TCPC and Infrared thermometer indicated over 1500℃when the peak pyrometer read 1447℃ with type R thermocouples. He took the pyrometer reading and decided not to use cone ever since. In his way of firing in the last 10 years, he always reaches peak at between 1380-1420℃ and maintain the temperature over 1300℃over 12 hours.


This very kiln that hit 1516℃is a downdraft style wood firing kiln built by him in May, 2012. Within the 54-hour burning process, temperature was remained over 1400℃over 12 hours, and we hit temperature over 1500℃ over five times in 8 hours.

He will open the kiln this Saturday and we will post the picture to share with everybody ASAP.



Sincerely,



…………Derek Chuang

[JBaymore]

Derek1229, on 06 November 2012 - 08:54 AM, said:

..........we will post the picture to share with everybody ASAP.

Derek,

Yes, Please!

best,

......................john

[TainanDerek]

Dear friends:

Sorry for waiting. It take some time editing and correcting this film. Hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.c...ukNyGSfOx4&hd=1



Sincerely,

...................Derek

[Cass]

some very beautiful work...what is the very coarse material that you see in the clay body?

interesting that you use the same method of filling the front with wood and just letting the fire draw it in, here we call that the wood-pig. often we fill up the opening top to bottom flush with the front wall, then close the door for a few seconds, then open and gently push all the wood in and repeat...that will get it going!

[TainanDerek]

Cass, on 14 November 2012 - 12:57 AM, said:

some very beautiful work...what is the very coarse material that you see in the clay body?

That's the feldspar pellets (a type of mineral used as flux) aswell as some silicon contained in the primary clay that Mr. Lin used in his works. During the high temperature, some finer clay in primary clay would melt and transformed into glaze and the little stones would rather melted into white spots or remain there. That's where the white coarse came from.


Sincerely.

........Derek

[Cass]

thankyou derek, that was my guess, i have a bag of feldspar, but much coarser bits, i am going to grind it down and do some experimentation, thanks!

[TainanDerek]

Cass, on 14 November 2012 - 10:41 AM, said:

thankyou derek, that was my guess, i have a bag of feldspar, but much coarser bits, i am going to grind it down and do some experimentation, thanks!

You are much welcomed.

[JLowes]

Recently I had the pleasure of attending a workshop with Kuroemon Kumano from Echizen, Japan. He regularly fires over 1,500 C, and if I recall he said he as hit 1535 C. He said "volcano temperatures". He fires by himself, with just the least help from only family members, for up to a week, as he thinks this reflects in his work and how the kiln fires. He thinks too many stokers loses connection with the whole firing. His nickname is "The Bear".

John

[TainanDerek]

JLowes, on 15 November 2012 - 05:56 AM, said:

Recently I had the pleasure of attending a workshop with Kuroemon Kumano from Echizen, Japan. He regularly fires over 1,500 C, and if I recall he said he as hit 1535 C. He said "volcano temperatures". He fires by himself, with just the least help from only family members, for up to a week, as he thinks this reflects in his work and how the kiln fires. He thinks too many stokers loses connection with the whole firing. His nickname is "The Bear".

John

Thank you, John. We've been searching for his info for days.


Sincerely.


..................Derek