Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Over-fire, or Under? The Burning Question

You'll remember that for due to a thermocouple failure, my last firing was quite uneven. I had to choose between letting eleven fall on one side, or failing to reach 9 on the other. I usually would have chosen to let one side be too cool, thinking that I can always refire the unfinished pots, but this time, in the interest of science, I went for 11. When I shut off, I had nine over on the west side, with 10 just barely soft, and 11 fully over on the east side. And you know what happened? Nothing much.

The pots on the Cone 11 side were very nice. I had to do some grinding, but only where the soda was so plentiful as to form a river. The glazes on the Cone 9 side were fine; not as spectacular as I know they can be, but still perfectly nice.

So: I learned something! It depends on the specific glazes, of course, but this is still useful information.

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