Bisque Ceramic Kiln Firing Schedule

The firing schedule for bisque firing is extremely important.

Bisque ceramic kiln firing schedule. There are two main approaches to bisque firing. Use the slow firing for pieces which are particularly large or thick otherwise you can use the standard firing schedule. Make sure the pottery is bone dry before bisque firing perhaps store in a warm dry room before the firing. Low fire or high fire.

Bisque firing requires between cone 010 04 with cone 08 06 being the most common. Firing the kiln firing low fire pottery after dipping. The schedule i have worked out for bisque is 5hrs to reach 600 2 hrs to reach 960 1 hr to reach 1060. In an electric kiln that s a given.

A cone 04 glaze firing schedule with down firing. In a fuel fired kiln excess air is a requirement. Unfortunately my kiln continuosly runs for only 8 hours so i will have to adjust the bisque firing schedule. Bottom switch on low for several hours if necessary this is called candling.

Without it organic and sulfur compounds won t burn off and can then cause faults in a later glaze firing. Because the bisque firing has already changed the clay into the ceramic material glaze firings can increase temperatures faster at the beginning and middle of the firing. Turn all switches to high until kiln has reached temperature. Turn all switches to medium for 3 4 hours.

These basic bisque firing schedules work for all the clays we sell. Counterintuitively in low fire the cone number is higher up to 04 to ensure that all the carbon and other materials in the clay burn out during the first firing. The ramp rate is usually measured in degrees per hour. So much to learn about the firing process.

The first firing of ceramic ware to make it strong enough to handle conveniently. Our mayco and duncan bisque has already been fired to cone 04 and is ready for low fire glazes and then fired to cone 06. Turn on all switches to low for 3 4 hours. Bisque firing schedule for automatic kiln controllers see above electric kilns with automatic controllers break firings down into ramps or segments of heat increase or decrease and the readout has abbreviations that correspond to different factors controlling the temperature rise per hour top temperature in each segment and thus the amount of time each ramp will take.

For a bisque firing there will be no soak and the ramp the increase in which the kiln s temperature is changing should be very slow. Link to kiln firing colour chart below for glaze firing a couple hours on low and medium then as long as it takes to bring cone 6 down should be a fairly safe schedule. This is a typical firing schedule for a bisque firing in a manual kiln. Place one each of pyrometric self supporting cones 05 06 07 in the middle of the bottom shelf 1 apart in a row and 1 apart from one another.