By that I mean slightly over 13 hours – so not really that long. The point of difference was in the wood, this firing I had about 50% macrocarpa, 30% pine pallet and 20% gum. We started with a mix of the macrocarpa and gum, which burnt well but did require a bit more ember management as we neared the 1000 degree mark. The gum wasn’t perfectly dry but as it was only thin branches it was easy not to over stoke it. The macrocarpa was from dead men standing trees of our neighbours.

This mix of woods also didn’t give us the usual resinous columns of black smoke normal with pine pallets and when entering the heavy reduction phase of the firing. The kiln took about an hour longer to reach the cone 6 mark, which is where we switched to pine and a little macrocarpa before starting the soda.

Looking at the results you can see the rich blushings are more evident from the longer firing and the light fly ash from the wood. Where there was a build of ash on the pots (like the throat zone) the resultant light green ash glaze gives a lovely soft highlight.