6/24/2021 How to Fire Pottery and Ceramics – How to Fire A Kiln – and Kiln Firing Techniques - HubPages

MAR 27, 2011

How to Fire Pottery and Ceramics – How to

Fire A Kiln – and Kiln Firing Techniques
NGURECO

Ceramics Requires Several Hours of

Intense Heating
Having covered How
to Choose A Kiln, its now time to look at how to fire pottery and
ceramic
using a kiln. A good number of people are not aware that the beautiful ceramic
serving dishes they use everyday are made from clay. Still a good number of
people are
not aware that the ceramic pieces they use goes several hours of
intense heating in a kiln
so that they come out shining like glass. Kiln
firing is a process that uses a lot of energy
and as such kilns are made of
light insulating bricks and ceramic fibre which are heat
energy efficient. 

Green-Ware

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When clay start drying from

the initial working condition, it becomes waxy and then
leather-hand. It dries
further and becomes chalky and bone-dry. When clayware is in these
unfired
states of moist state, leather-hard and bone-dry, it is called green-ware. If
clay has
dried past leather-hand state, wet clay can not be joined to the dry
clay. Any incision into
the surface of clay can only be done at or before
leather-hard state. When clay dries, it
losses some water and shrinks. Green-ware
can not easily be glazed in that state because
they are very delicate and will
break if water is introduced to them.

Stacking for Bisque Firing

In order to make the clay pots/figures be porous
and able to absorb water in glaze
sufficiently, and be strong to handle, clay pieces
are first bisque fired to red heat
temperatures of 815˚C to 870˚C .In bisque
firing, clay pieces in a kiln can be put on top of
each other and on stilts but
you can also stack them on kiln shelves. It is however
important to consider
weight distribution and shrinkage of clay pieces before putting them
on top of
each other – they can break.

Stages through Firing

When ceramic are fired, it
involve four stages that clay has to go through, namely:

1. smoking water

2. dehydration

3. oxidation

4. vitrification

Smoking Water and Dehydration

The first two stages, smoking
water and dehydration are what bisque firing is about. 
Smoking water is the water added to clay
during handbuilding and that water is removed
from clay at boiling point of water.
Dehydration is about removing water that is in
chemical composition of clay and
this is driven off the clay all the way up to 485˚C

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Silica Inversion
Silica inversion is a point
in firing cycle where silica expands and contract as it changes
from alpha to
beta quartz. Silica inversion occurs at 260˚C and again at 540˚C as the
temperature goes upward and the same happens again as the ware cools as the
temperature goes downward. Does silica inversion matters in firing pottery and
ceramics?
Silica inversions seem not to matter in all the firings.

Even Temperature in All Corners of

the Kiln
A kiln can build very high
temperatures within a very short time if all burners are open. The
smoking
water and dehydration stages have to be done at very low rates of temperature
increases to avoid your clay figures breaking apart due to uneven expansion of
clay as it
contains water – yes, they do blow up into pieces and will sound
like popcorns being
made. The temperature throughout the kiln should be even
in all corners of the kiln.

Bisque Firing Technique

1. With burners lit
at the lowest flame possible, and with the kiln’s door partly open, raise
the
kiln temperature very slowly from a room temperature of say 20˚C to 120˚C at
the rate
of 1˚C temperature rise per minute. This should take you about 1 hour
and 40 minutes.

2. With burners lit

at the low flame, and with the kiln’s door partly open, raise the kiln
temperature very slowly from 120˚C to 260˚C at the rate of 2˚C temperature rise
per minute
and at the rate of 2˚C per minute from 260 to 540˚C. This should
take you about 3 hour
and 30 minutes. Pause still for about five minutes at
260˚C and 540˚C.

3. At 540˚C, a
mirror held close to the door’s peephole will not fog up – an indication the
clay pieces have no more moisture to emit. Your ware is now out of danger of
blowing up.
Close the kiln door securely and open the burners more to fire from
540 ˚C to 870˚C in
another one hour.

4. Total time taken

to bisque fire to 870˚C is 6 hours 20 minutes.
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5. After 870˚C is
reached, put off the burners, and with the doors and peephole tightly
closed,
let the kiln cools by itself to below 100˚C before opening the door. This may
take
another 4 - 6 hours depending on the materials used in making your kiln.

After bisque firing, your

ware is now strong, porous enough and ready for glazing. Wipe
the ware with a
cloth and water to remove chalky dust powder on the ware. Apply the
glaze
appropriately to your liking.

Stacking Glazed Pottery Pieces in a

Kiln
Glazed pottery pieces must be
stacked very carefully in the kiln. Pieces should not touch
each other as
molten glaze will boil and attach itself to the next piece. Leave a distance of
2 cm between glazed pieces. Feet or edges that support the pieces on the
shelves should
be free of glaze. You may (or you may not) use a kiln wash (a
mixture of 50% kaolin and
50% silica) on shelves to protect shelves from molten
glaze drops.

Firing Glazed Clay Figures

1. With burners lit
at the lowest flame possible, and with the kiln’s door tightly closed, raise
the
kiln temperature gradually from a room temperature of say 20˚C to 120˚C at the
rate of
3˚C temperature rise per minute. This should take you about 30 minutes.

2. With burners lit

at moderate flame, and with the kiln’s door tightly closed, raise the kiln
temperature at moderate rate from 120˚C to 260˚C at the rate of 4˚C temperature
rise per
minute and at the rate of 4˚C per minute from 260 to 540˚C, pause
temperature still for
about five minutes at 260˚C and 540˚C, and fire at the
rate of 4˚C per minute from 540˚C
to 870˚C. This should take you 3 hours and 20
minutes.

3. The temperature
range from 600˚C upward is the oxidation stage where impurities will
unite with
oxygen and burn out. Vitrification also starts at this temperature range all
the
way up to 1304˚C.

4. At 870˚C, close
the damper slightly more and adjust the burners to raise the
temperature from
870˚C to 1037˚C at the rate of 3˚C per minute. This should take you
about 1
hour.

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5. After 1037˚C is
reached, it now starts getting difficult to achieve a temperature rise. You
now
have to manipulate the burners and amounts of fuel getting into the kiln
together
with adjustment of the dampers - too little propane gas in the kiln
will reduce the fire and
too much propane gas will cool the kiln.

6. Reduction firing
should start at 1037˚C. This is done by denying the gas flowing into kiln
to
have air (oxygen). In gas kiln you switch off air jets in your gas kiln (and in
electric kiln
you introduce moth balls inside the kiln). Iron reduces best at
1037˚C. Pause temperature
still for 10 – 15 minutes at 1037˚C to facilitate the
best reduction.

7. Move the
temperature at the rate of 1˚C per minute after pause from 1037 to 1200˚C.
Pause for 5 minute at 1175˚C for another reduction. Gaining a temperature rise in
this
temperature range can be difficult. Gas without enough air will not burn
fast enough -
open air jet a bit and then close again to continue with
reduction. This should take you no
more than 2 hours and 30 minutes.

8. Move the
temperature at the rate of 2˚C per minute from 1200 to 1304˚C. This should
take
you one hour. Spend ten more minutes at the top temperature of 1300˚C to 1304˚C
for
glaze to mature fully.

9. This kiln firing

of glazed pieces should take you about 8 hours 30 minutes.

Cooling the Kiln

Once you are through with
firing up to 1304˚C, let the kiln cool gradually until after the
temperature
inside the kiln is below 100˚C. Kilns made with light insulating bricks and
ceramic fibre should be able to cool below 100˚C in about 5 hours. Then open
your kiln and
inside there you will see your surprises. Take care – for what
you see there can sometimes
give you what? - A heart…. ?
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Comments
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WillSteinmetz on July 28, 2011:

Great techniques!

Dany on November 30, 2010:

Thank you for the detailed information! :D

Marshall on September 13, 2010:

Great summary and explanation of a difficult process

Hello, hello, from London, UK on September 12, 2010:

A fascinating subject and you explained in such details. Thank you.

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