Pit firing

Dear all,

I have bought some books suggested by the group about kiln
building. It is going to take time to get organised enough to
build a kiln. Since we got the 4 day weekend coming up at the end
of the month, I thought I'd pit fire my greenware rather than
wait to get a kiln built.

I have had a look at a number of sites, and there seem to be some
divergent methods. Pits are sometimes covered with corrugated
iron, sometimes not. Other things (salt, coppers, etc) are
sometimes thrown in with the pots either before or during firing
and sometimes not.

a) I have a small number of green items which I have made. They
shouldn't take up more than one or two cubic feet when stacked.
Many of the pits I have read about are four feet deep and very
long and wide. How much deeper does the pit have to be than the
top of the pots?

b) How deep should the sawdust be at the bottom (some say 4
inches some say 8 to 12 inches)? If I want to add charcoal dust,
should I make layers, or mix it in? Is leaves and pine needles a
decent substitute for or addition to sawdust?

c) what does salt actually do? I guess that coppers add colours,
and dung, etc. cuts off oxygen, but I am not sure what is being
achieved by throwing salt in when the fire is raging.

d) How much wood should I plan to use - is filling the pit to
ground level ok? Will I need to add more during the firing
process?

e) How far from trees, buildings, walls, etc. should my pit be?

f) Am I worrying too much? Would it be better to go by the seat
of my pants, but to keep notes while doing so?

I look forward to your answers. I have learnt a lot from the
group and know I will continue to do so, the more I read.

Cheers,
Stelios
Athens, Greece

PS - national holiday 28 Oct, for those wondering.

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On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 17:53:39 +0300, Stelios Zacharias
wrote:

Err, me again - have done some more reading. I have figured out
what the salt actually does, although I am not sure I will manage
to reach the sort of temperatures needed to get the salt to make
the glossy effect.

Cheers,
Stelios
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The address in the headers is real and does not need de-mungeing