native pottery

[iowabow]

Thanks all for the positive input and all. Update for you the pot has air dried and is being sun baked this afternoon to drive off as much water as possible. Then i will let it sit for another day just for good measure. I want the ware to be bone dry. Any moisture in the pot at 212 will blow. If the pot breaks during firing we will still have results to evaluate. With the store bought clay i had a bout a 20 % breakage rate so I figure the rate should be higher like 50%. I already have the next batch of clay ready to fire.

[bowtarist]

  cool thread John and nice pot too. dp

[iowabow]

It is hard to find a good window of opportunity to do the firing. Wednesday is going to be too windy with gusts up to 30 miles per hour. Thursday we have a heat warning with high winds as well. We have thunderstorms forecast for the weekend so monday is now my new target. I am anxious to start the firing but know better than risk the chance of cool air on a hot pot from gust or water from a down pour. So as hard as it is to wait i am fillin the time with other primitive projects. I have finish to put on three bows, cane arrows to shave on,  and flint knapping for hunting points i am making for people. A calm day is what is needed so I wait.

[iowabow]

Might be a window 1am Friday morning till late afternoon. You might wonder why I want to fire during this window. The reason to take the risk is because the ground will be dry. If I wait till Monday I have a hole that is conducting cold easier due to higher moisture.

[bowtarist]

Can't you throw a tarp over it or a buffalo rug or something?  Man I hope that rain makes it this far East.  It is dry dry dry here.  Last big rain was on May 8th. dp

[JW_Halverson]

Quick pack it up and send it to me!  I'll put it out in the Black Hills and the forest fires will fire it for you!

We'll just have to trust and hope a fire crew doesn't step on it!

[n2everythg]

I recently did some native potting from some local creek clay. It fired fine for me. I took my time easing it into the heat was all. Set it beside the fire and turned it and moved it slowly closer til i couldn't hardly touch it before actually throwing it into the fire and burying it.
Worked out good.
Will see if I can get some photos some time soon.
N2

[iowabow]

The winds should die by 6 pm. We have 20% chance of rain so i am going to go for it so stay tuned for pictures to night.

[JW_Halverson]

Just saw an article about pottery like this in the Backwoodsman.  John, you could write a much better article and judging by the number of people reading this thread it would be a very popular article in P.A.  Think it over!

[iowabow]

Just saw an article about pottery like this in the Backwoodsman.  John, you could write a much better article and judging by the number of people reading this thread it would be a very popular article in P.A.  Think it over!

I think i will but make it more detailed with source material and historical ref. This thime is just a stress test and temp test.

Ok fire lighted at 7am. 4 minutes later i hear thunder
So i am considering options....

[iowabow]

Ok i have 15 min before rain so here is the plan lots of  large sticks leaves and then dirt as a shelter

[iowabow]

I am running to get a shelter together but need to record firing time725am

[iowabow]

Built just in time

[iowabow]

15 min later still good and rain letting up

[iowabow]

We are around the 1000 degree mark so it will be interesting to see what we reach. I would be very concerned that the temp went too high too quick. But we will see. I have to start some where.