Finishing the firing

Here is Dave stoking the main firebox. It is about 2 oclock in the morning of Saturday and we are raising the temp for the final time. Firing this kiln is more than one person can do. Fortunately there are folks like Dave that like to stay up all night and play with fire. I am truly grateful for Dave and the other crazies that think that a good time is to stay up all night and play with fire.

The ember bed was a little high, we had mainly oak to stoke this time and oak coals up and leaves a large ember bed. We pulled off about 20 gallons of embers to get the firebox running efficiently. Different woods coal up differently and oak seems to be on the high end. With anagama's regulating the height and size of the ember bed is important to be able to reach the temperatures that you want.

Here I am starting to sidestoke the second stoke hole. I stoke this tier a lot during the firing for ash effects.
The kiln is still at about 200F after cooling for a week. The kiln opening will be Monday afternoon. Oh.. I peeked and am really looking forward to the opening!!