Overview | | | Glazing | | | Kiln & Firing | | | Slip Casting |
There are many ways of making and firing a Raku kiln, what follows is the approach that I have developed that works for the type of where I produce. Pictures of the kiln are on the slide show (the link is on the main home page). I prefer a soft brick kiln to fiber; mine is made of k-23’s. I believe fiber kilns reflect the heat in a more radical way than soft for hard brick; this can cause uneven melt and boiling of the glaze. I am sure people will differ with this point, and I accept the possibility of being wrong on this. I fire updraft; the kiln is a converted Scutt electric. I find that positioning the burner underneath the kiln shooting straight up to a target brick works well.
The bottom shelve is about a foot up from the burner ports with lots of hard brick baffles to break up the flame. This seems to reduce hot spots and facilitate a good recovery time. It normally takes 4 hours at 6 WC” to get first load out then 30 minutes at 12 WC” recovery after that. This may seem slow but faster firings will encourage glazes to boil and an uneven melt. I find firing on the reduction side of neutral also gives a fat look to glaze. My main focus has been to achieve a smooth and even melt, not a quick temperature rise in oxidation and then reducing to smooth out the glaze.