Virgin Fire

Fired up the new gas reduction kiln yesterday for the first time. I'm a total newbie to being in the driver's seat, so I'm starting out with a cone 6 until I feel like I really know what I'm doing.

I ended up adjusting the size of the top vent hole to 6". The 3-1/2" hole just did not look big enough, so I called Olympic (which is what I should have done from the beginning). The tech guy I spoke with said the top vent hole should be 6" and the burner port holes should be 3". I decided to leave the burner port holes at 2-1/2" and just enlarged the top vent. I also marked 1/4" increments on both sides of the vent hole, so I would be able to gauge the damper for reduction.

Here's the fire schedule I attempted to use:

• 200 degrees F / hour to 600 degrees
• 250 degrees F / hour to 1100 degrees
• Start reduction at cone 012
• 300 degrees F / hour to 2232 degrees
• Soak for 1 hour

Sounds simple enough. Here's what actually happened:

• Fast rise to 1350 degrees in 2 hours until I could get the gas properly regulated.
• 300 degrees F / hour rise to cone 012
• Start reduction. I put the damper at 3"
• Continue to check every 30 minutes to tweak and maintain 300 degree rise.
• At 1970 degrees F, I'm kiln sitting to monitor rise up to temp. The last 30 minutes there was only had a 60 degree rise in temp, so I cut back on the reduction and moved the damper to 2.5".
• At 2030 degrees F, I hear the sickening sound of a shelf falling from w/in the kiln. Looking thru two of the peeps, all I can see is the side of a kiln shelf pressed against the wall.
• At 2050 degrees F, I decided to stop the fire rather than risk the possibility of making things worse.

Before things went awry, here's a shot of the kiln while in reduction. There was some good flame starting to come out of the top vent. I tried to get a good shot, but it was too bright outside.