Su Hanna's kilns

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Su's present kiln was built in 2003 with the assistance of Fergus Stewart. It is a groundhog/anagama type kiln with a cast arch. She fires for about 70hrs.


Side view of the kiln above.  The kiln in the background is a new kin still under construction

The unfinished new kiln

Su felt the need for a new kiln because of the increasing difficulty of finding wood. Obviously  a smaller kiln will need less wood and personal energy for each firing.  After some indecision she settled on a design known to have produced good results in its first firing.  Daniel Wall offered to help her build it after building a small version at the 2011 woodfire conference in Tasmania.  It is a mini downdraught bottle kiln with the firebox through the middle and 12 exit flues around the floor. The outer layer, which is the flue wall, is built with insulating bricks to retain heat and reduce the  amount of smoke finally emitted by the chimney. These bricks go up the walls of the chamber on the outside and join up into a single flue above the chamber. The bricklaying pattern shown at lower right was used because only straight bricks were available.  Other examples of this Islamic squinch arch  construction are shown here.  A comprehensive set of photos of the construction of this kiln can be seen on Gyan Danial Wall's Facebook album.




The kiln shed

Daniel Wall capping the flue
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