Terra Cotta: My musings on...and resulting actions with.

[HorseloverFat]

I know nothing of pottery beyond high school art class when we did some horrible pots and a renn faire pot coil and then spun type pot where I left an air pocket somehow both inspected and fired by professionals in real kilns.

So my lack of education on the topic covered, could you use an infrared thermometer? Some of those go into the thousands of degrees and cost as low as 20 bucks.

Also watch for demolition and remodels, fire places being taken down could be a source for fire bricks for pit lining material. Not sure it will help at all.

A fan/blower to increase oxygen and thus heat?

Would using charcoal or coal help? Have you considered watching thrift stores/garage sales for turkey fryers as a heat source?

Those are my uneducated WAGs (Wild Ass Guesses) sometimes a random thought from someone that knows nothing can give you an out of the box idea just by thinking of how wrong they are. Lmao.

Thank you!
These are all wonderful ideas!

I will MOST definitely explore a few of those avenues. The infrared Thermometer first.

A fryer’s heat source is a great idea....

 

[Trenthany]

So happy I was able to help! Good luck @HorseloverFat! If you can let me know what’s wrong with these ideas I can throw other quite likely bad ideas at you! Lmao down in the rural south we are good at what has become known as redneck ingenuity. In other words making do with what you can get for free or steal/borrow from a friend! Speaking of which I can send an amazing burner your way as soon as I find it. Give me a day or so and I’ll see what I can scrounge up it was recent so shouldn’t be too lost. Recently moved and have waaaay to much stuff. Lol. If I can find it I’ll send it to you. It’ll save you $ buying a lesser one and I only spent $5 at a thrift store on it I think. It was going to go on a BBQ catering trailer so should put out some BTUs.

Oh another random thought! Are you using hardwoods? More BTUs per pound the denser the wood the better as long as it burns good.

 

[HorseloverFat]

So happy I was able to help! Good luck @HorseloverFat! If you can let me know what’s wrong with these ideas I can throw other quite likely bad ideas at you! Lmao down in the rural south we are good at what has become known as redneck ingenuity. In other words making do with what you can get for free or steal/borrow from a friend! Speaking of which I can send an amazing burner your way as soon as I find it. Give me a day or so and I’ll see what I can scrounge up it was recent so shouldn’t be too lost. Recently moved and have waaaay to much stuff. Lol. If I can find it I’ll send it to you. It’ll save you $ buying a lesser one and I only spent $5 at a thrift store on it I think. It was going to go on a BBQ catering trailer so should put out some BTUs.

Oh another random thought! Are you using hardwoods? More BTUs per pound the denser the wood the better as long as it burns good.

Oh hell yeah.. i’m familiar with FL.. like reeeal FL. lol

Shoot! You definitely don’t have to do that. But if you decide to.. i’d probably explode out of sheer grattitude.

I use mostly mixed for starting the blaze.. but once the fire is “a free thinker”.. i try to use hardwoods.. sometimes that’s just not what “me an’ the saw” stagger out of the woods with.

But to be perfectly honest.. I had never considered it.

Thanks for that.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Bbq catering? .. mmm i miss Chef life.. but 13 years on the line.. , even half of that as a chef in managerial situations.. was enough.

Doing food trucks was a ton of fun... like more precise, dignified “Carnie work” (did that a few years too)

 

[Trenthany]

Oh hell yeah.. i’m familiar with FL.. like reeeal FL. lol

Ever hear of Arcadia...? Lmao

 

[HorseloverFat]

Ever hear of Arcadia...? Lmao

I’m afraid not, friend. i have some real... “organic” family in jacksonville.

Is Arcadia closer to the more “tourist”-geared epicenters?

 

[Trenthany]

I’m afraid not, friend. i have some real... “organic” family in jacksonville.

Is Arcadia closer to the more “tourist”-geared epicenters?

SW Florida Sarasota and Okeechobee. Probably 6 hours south and west of Jacksonville.

 

[Crawforde]

Arcadia is a pretty area.
I work in Okeechobee at least once a month, I kind of like it up there too. Some really nice cypress swamps and some beautiful live oaks.
oops sorry, back to terra cotta.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Arcadia is a pretty area.
I work in Okeechobee at least once a month, I kind of like it up there too. Some really nice cypress swamps and some beautiful live oaks.
oops sorry, back to terra cotta.

No worries, at ALL! I enjoy conversation and am pretty UN-finicky when It comes to my threads.

 

[HorseloverFat]

I had to “unload” some of these pictures.. this is what I’m working on today.. we are going to be staying by my parent’s house while they are on vacation.. and am planning on a real “pitfire”...

This is NOT complete... or dry..(well.. it was PARTIALLY dried at one time)

Just documenting progress, as well as “freeing” up space on my phone.

TCAL-1 Fabrication

 

[Anthony]

Horse,

thought you might like this.
Anthony

Pot and stone are hand made pottery.
The serissa is growing in the centre of the sione.
The stone uses a commercial porous glaze [ called - Garden Glaze ]

 

[Trenthany]

Haven’t found that burner yet been all over SW FL getting free landscape rock, free boulders, some free pots, and more. Lol I haven’t forgotten though!

 

[HorseloverFat]

We’ve been staying at my parent’s house on a mini-vacation. So I was able to ACTUALLY pitfire several different batches.

The pot/planter is a sand/clay mix.. (A stick fell on it red hot ) both dry sifted to 1/16”.. started at 1:1.. then corrected for “pliability”.

The larger.. “slab planting” is simply hand filtered earthenware.. “thug clay”.. as I like to call it...

The franken-clay bricks are that partially cement mix from terracottatest 7, I think.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Also my pyrometric cones will be here monday.. so i can continue work/trials with my “dutch oven” apparatus.

 

[HorseloverFat]

When the cones arrive, should i make some 2-3cone “plugs” or “packs”..

It seems like I should just concentrate on getting to “cone 1”... but not sure.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Also my pyrometric cones will be here monday.. so i can continue work/trials with my “dutch oven” apparatus.

As a kid, when CN subtitles didn't always work and I had to learn English by force, I never understood the funny part about that oven. I mean, the thing was right there in our kitchen, it was Dutch, it got freakishly hot and pizzas came out of it.

One thing that might be handy for you though, is a raised fire and alder wood. We managed to melt the 1" thick cast iron wall of our fireplace because we fired it up with black alder and our fireplace sucks in air from the bottom. The lifelong guarantee was denied by the manufacturer because the we did exactly what the two exceptions to the clausule stated: bottom aeration and firing up black alder.

 

[HorseloverFat]

 

[Crawforde]

Nice little literati pot

 

[HorseloverFat]

This guy is dry.. just waiting until my next fire.. actually made of sifted out clay plaster/impurities and 1/3 hand sifted beach sand... I call the mixture “Thug clay in a top hat”

 

[HorseloverFat]