Vince Pitelka on tue 17 oct 06
Peter Coates wrote:
"I went to a Gay Smith workshop this past weekend, she is a great lady. She
fires a IFB soda kiln, and that was being discussed a few days ago. So here
is what she had to say about her kiln. Her original kiln was 45 cubic foot
car kiln which lasted about 12 years. She said she fired about every other
month or so. She rebuilt her kiln after 12 years, this time only the door
was on a car. Gay single fires porcelain and feels the savings in gas and
such are worth it to build with with IFB's. She also said that she does a
light soda firing."
Peter -
It seems that the choice of IFB versus hardbrick must be based on the
frequency of firing and the heaviness or lightness of soda charging. With
very frequent firing and fairly heavy charging, I don't think that a IFB
soda kiln is very practical, and a hardbrick hotface is necessary. However,
with less frequent firing, light charging, an IFB kiln sprayed with ITC-100
could last a long time, as with Gay Smith's kiln.
Another factor - lots of contemporary potters soda-fire to cone 6, and an
IFB kiln would certainly be more viable at that temperature.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/
Peter Coates on tue 17 oct 06
Hello All
I went to a Gay Smith workshop this past weekend, she is a great lady.
She fires a IFB soda kiln, and that was being discussed a few days
ago. So here is what she had to say about
her kiln. Her original kiln was 45 cubic foot car kiln which lasted
about 12 years. She said she fired about every
other month or so. She rebuilt her kiln after 12 years, this time
only the door was on a car. Gay single fires
porcelain and feels the savings in gas and such are worth it to build
with with IFB's. She also said that she does
a light soda firing.
You can take a look at her work on her website
http://www.gertrudegrahamsmith.com/
I don't have a soda kiln so please don't send nasty messages to me
saying how evil it is to build an IFB soda kiln.
Just reporting the news.
Peter in Oklahoma City
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