I am glad to hear you taking an interest in this, maybe you can start to show Johnnie how it's done! ;) For my ceramics class last year, I did a small paper over John's saggar fired sawdust pieces. I have never been successful with firing, I think we used way too little sawdust. We also used huge pits too, not small confined spaces. This year, so far you and John are two of my, as of now three, inspirations going into my undergrad thesis. I am eager to see the results!
What did the results look like? I am asking to know so i have an idea how my peices will turn out, i dont mind if they go darker in color but id like them to be lighter to put on paint or other type finishing...were those peices already kilned before you put them in this way?
Acquiring sawdust tip: Visit your local hardware store (Home Depot, Lowes, etc) and ask them if you can empty there sawdust bins. Usually they have a bin that catches the sawdust created by cutting down boards for other customers. They will probably let you have the sawdust for free. Just remember to bring your own container. Another tip: As Simon says use VERY LITTLE gas.. Gas has a low flash point and if you let it stand for very long, or use a lot, you will get a huge flash when igniting.
Sounds real good Simon, I have used a low fire Raku clay and a ^5 med groged clay in our camp fire, some green and some bisque. As my husband stirs the fire a lot, I use things like foil to protect to pieces abit, My son has used a digital Multi Meter with small probe to read these fires we have achieved 1500* F at times!
just what I was looking for! Maybe it was already asked and answered in the past ten years, but were these pieces bisqued in another kiln or is this greenware?? I'm wondering if this would work with greenware. thanks
Couldnt these be fired the same way but instead have the pottery out of the sawdust? Like firing raku, so far my favorite finishes are coming out but need to first bisque fire and it is not helping with small peices like pemdants and charms.
Very interesting! What temperature do you anticipate your sawdust firing to get to? Do you think you have enough volume of combustables to reach that temperature? The few sawdust firing I have seen have been larger. What cone range is your clay body formulated for? Please do give us a pot ringing for this firing! And let us know what you would like to have gone differently (after you learn what you learn from this) and what will you change next time. Thanks!! (very interesting)
What kind of bricks are those big ones? I love that you only have a small firing which is what I would be able to do, and that would be so easily dismantled and re-assembled. If I can get the bricks I will be trying this too. Thanks Simon!
wow, I am enjoying all these great comments and ideas. I am booting up the computer everyday looking for results of both firings. The bit about cheetos and chips really sound interesting. Must be the salt on them that makes marks. Makes me wonder if I should ever eat them with all that salt on them!
Hi Simon! A master potter friend of mine was concerned the concrete blocks have too much moisture and could explode with the heat. Were the concrete blocks OK?
Hi Simon,very nice ! I would like to know I did sawdust pit firing a few times now but every time when fired for 12 hours I take them out (after they've cooled) looks nice but once I put soil and water in,it cracks the next day. I love the black color it turns out and would like to keep it. What can I do as I do not have any kiln nor the money for it ? Please help and advice me :=)
I've been experimenting for two and a half years with this process now, Mariette. The secret with the sawdust firing is that it must go VERY slow.Even 24 hours is too fast. From lighting up to taking out it should be at three days. Primitive clay fires well like this. I get red clay from a nearby brick yard that mines their own clay. Ive mixed in a variety of materials in order to get better results but would get cracked items in every firing. And than I learnt the firing had to go VERY slow. Now I use the fine clay as is and get no damage. Small items I fire in my fireplace with very good results. They dont get blackened in the flames and coals as in the sawdust. Both ways of firing produce quite hard articles that cannot be scratched by your nails (rather your nails get scoured down by the clay) and nor does it go soft when soaked in water for a long time. I've used shards of broken items to fill up my driveway (I told you I have been EXPERIMENTING!) and they are as hard as a year ago even though I live in a wet climate.
+chris genson wow that was 6 years back ! ...it was OK not brilliant. I think I would have been better to have bisque fired the pots before firing them in the pit/sawdust...learning curve !
I want to build something in my back yard but I cant go huge....or even medium, lol. But when I saw this I thought awesome. I'm just going to be putting clay I dug myself in there. I had been pit firing them, but the wood occasionally fell and chipped pieces.Its a total bummer after stone polishing something for hours!!!!
Sorry about the bad spelling in the previous post, corrections are "their" instead of "there". I could not figure out how to remove, correct, and then re-post the corrected version of my previous post.
Is that a plaster, gypsum board didn't it light up and burn too? Would like to see results, I have a few all black peices, from our camp fires, they are real old looking, kind of fun! Maybe the bear and racoons would rather have tea with you up on your deck, HaHa Lucky Bear!!!
