Over the past few months Catherine and I have made various modifications to our kiln at Phantassie. These include enlarging the exit flues, raising the height of the chimney, adding extra insulation, building pre-heated air inlets to the sidestoke area and creating a stepped internal floor -all of which we hoped would make it easier to reach top temperature and to achieve the results we are after. Last week we finished stacking pots in the modified kiln and spent three days firing it for the second time.
We were blessed with perfect weather and the kiln was certainly much easier to control and fire.
Were the results worth the effort? We will have to wait and see when we crack the kiln open this evening. The video below gives a glimpse of the firing process.
Philip Revell