Can we make these in Fired Arts?

Was curious since they are some pretty hi-temp things.

:slight_smile:

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Sure! Stoneware is pretty much fire-safe. We fire to Cone 6, which is about 2200 F. And, most of the clay we use would be fine (not melting) up to Cone 10, which is around 2400 F. Do we need a handbuilding class on making skulls? (It might be June before it happens, though.)

“heat ceramic refractory”

This phrase doesn’t make sense to me, though…

I am wondering if Raky clay would be a better choice?
It takde being shocke better, I bet Trinity would know

The linked article explains it a bit better…

What would be fun would be hatching dragons or dragons or fire
salamanders (fire elementals)

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Count me in if we have this class!

I dug into these a little bit more. The manufacturer refers to them as being “refractory ceramic” which probably isn’t the best description of the material.
Between how reviewers on Amazon describe them, as well as looking into various processes, it’s probably better to refer to these as being made from “refractory cement.”
They’re supposedly rated as safe up to over 3,000 degrees, which is way off the cone chart.
Your average fireplace fire (gas or wood) is usually hovering in the 1,000-1,200 degree range. Ceramics generally aren’t going to melt at that temperature, although some glazes will certainly be affected (most won’t melt, but colors could easily be affected in some cases, especially with repeated exposure).
That being said, thermal shock is where I would really be concerned. I’m just not certain how safe any given ceramic piece is going to be when placed directly into a fire, especially after all the stories I’ve read about a “good” pit firing having a 30%+ failure rate (pit firings generally do get hotter than open fireplaces, to be fair).
I wouldn’t recommend doing this with just any old stoneware. There are specific clay bodies that are classified as “flameware” that people use to make cookpots and things along those lines. If you used something like that, it would probably be just fine.

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