A cracking good firing immediately before Christmas. A long night (in fact the longest night of the year). It was cold and showery (rain and hail) and I had to push the purist side of me out of the way and sacrifice some wood-firing time to prolonging the gas phase, which I usually think of as for drying out the kiln, and also to introducing the oil phase earlier. For those with an interest in the technical stuff the firing went (from raw) in degrees centigrade: 0-400 gas, 400-600 wood @ 75 per hour = 8 hours / 600-900 oil, oxidising atmosphere @ 100 per hour / 900-1,000 oil, strong reduction @ 50 per hour / 1,000-1,120 oil, lighter reduction @ 40 per hour / 1,120-1,200 oil, heavier reduction @ 27 per hour / 1,200-1,280 oil, oxidising @ 20 per hour (14 lbs salt between 1,220 – 1,250 and a good hour and a half of soaking till cone 11 was down. Crash cool to 1,000 (1 hour). Twenty four hours in all. As always, the pyrometer lags behind the cones.

Well on the way for a firing at the end of the month. The building of the new kiln will have to wait until the weather warms up a bit.