[winterlight]

So I just getting started with pit firing and I know that it isn't 'food safe' which is generally fine because I am more into making things like lanterns and wall masks. However I was wondering if a large bowl would still be safe for things like unpeeled apples and oranges or other fruits that have a peel on them. Also I have seen morter and pestle sets that seem to be unglazed. Are these safe to use for grinding herbs that will be used in food or not?

I'm sorry if these sort of questions have been answered, I didn't find them when I searched.

-winterlight

[Marcia Selsor]

It depends on a lot of things. First how thick or fragile is it? Did you bisque fire to 09 or 04? If it is thick it should hold apples without concern. It it has a delicate lip, and apple could chip it accidentally.
A wall mask should be fine.

Marcia

[winterlight]

Marcia Selsor, on 27 November 2012 - 03:49 PM, said:

It depends on a lot of things. First how thick or fragile is it? Did you bisque fire to 09 or 04? If it is thick it should hold apples without concern. It it has a delicate lip, and apple could chip it accidentally.
A wall mask should be fine.

Marcia

Thanks, I just mostly burnish and then I plan to fire it in a 3ft pit with sawdust and leaves on the bottom and stack wood on top. As far as rims go almost all of my work is very hardy. Delicate isn't really in my vocabulary, I like robust forms that don't look like they will break if I look at them wrong! I admire delicate work but it isn't in my repertoire!

[Chris Campbell]

I agree with Marcia but also ... I would not grind herbs or food in it since it will be soft and you will be grinding away the surface and eating it. Might be a little crunchy too. : - )

[neilestrick]

I would not use it for any food that could put moisture or oils into the pot, or anything that requires durability like a mortar and pestle.

[DAY]

"Safe" has as many definitions as "Pretty".
Remember, for millennia people ate from wooden bowls, with wooden spoons. In Elizabethan times bathing was thought a highly risky endeavor.
As a decorative centerpiece, filled with fruit, a pit fired bowl is quite "safe'- but also quite fragile!

[Iforgot]

I'd say that in general pit fired work should be decorative, making a mortar and pestel would grid up your clay body. But you can make unglazed ware to be functional, if you fire with in 3 pyrometeric cone tempratures of your clay body's recomended vitrification point you will be fine.



Darrel

[Denice]

Try to use the lowest cone clay you can find or make when comes to pit firing. I have only been involved in a large Anazai pit firing and you could tell that every thing was so under fired that sneezing next to the pot could break it. I had a lot of work in the firing so I refired it to C 04 in my electric kiln, I lost some of the smoke patterns on the pieces but it was worth it to save the work. Denice

[neilestrick]

DAY, on 28 November 2012 - 07:40 AM, said:

Remember, for millennia people ate from wooden bowls, with wooden spoons.

For millennia people also didn't know what bacteria was.