Setting an even bigger fire to quickly cure the fire dome render.

On:

DIY charcoal furnace A DIY charcoal furnace that can make its own charcoal from waste wood, pre-fire and fully fire DIY ceramics. I don’t mind a little ambiguity in a title. I can keep it short and have the reader question is this a device that makes charcoal or usesRead More →

Paper clay test piece after firing in glowing charcoal.

On:

DIY refractory paper clay I excitedly prepared this DIY refractory paper clay post after an interesting contact from Rudy who had read my DIY refractory post. He kindly sent me the text of an article titled …mix WHAT with CLAY by Brian Gartside 1993. I contacted Brian and have includedRead More →

On:

This post describes the effect of surface emissivity coatings for ultralight tent stoves that can be used for comfort and cooking while backpacking camping while winter trekking. Introduction I consider my tiny tent stoves to be ‘heat radiators’ rather than tent air heaters, although they do both. Consequently, this postRead More →

Miniature Dome Stove showing that combustion is still occurring in the flue pipe elbow. The stove was burning dry pine tree sticks at the time.

On:

This post is about temperature measurement in Ultralight tent stoves. Introduction I consider my tiny tent stoves to be ‘heat radiators’ rather than tent air heaters, although they do both. Consequently, estimating the correct temperature of the stove is critical understanding the radiant heat optimisation. It is the subject ofRead More →

Micro ceramic stick stove light.

On:

Experimental ceramic stick burner A report on an experimental micro ceramic stick burner made as an inverted J-burners. It is made from largely clay free loam soil and sodium silicate. It is configured for; natural or forced draft operation. It also was designed with an optional fussed quartz charcoal-burner glassRead More →

A small test disk of 'crab hole mound' and sodium silicate DIY refractory that has 'puffed' during firing. Despite the puffing, it is very hard and strong.

On:

Sodium silicate refractory firing A range of cheap DIY refractories can be made with sodium silicate as a bonding agent. These can be made with various mineral, metal oxides and even fine soil when mixed with a little sodium silicate (alkaline water glass). The current post describes the careful butRead More →