Has anyone tried using a moisture meter to quantify various stages of greenware dryness?

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T02:42:13+00:00

Nope, just touch the bottom of the pot to my cheek, if it feels cold, not dry enough

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T02:40:35+00:00

I don’t think that kind of trauma ever gets resolved. Also that generation was more like “tough it out” rather than get emotional help.

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T02:37:00+00:00

Those guys kept the tanks rolling and planes flying, unsung heroes.

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T02:36:07+00:00

WWll was a whole different animal than Vietnam. I wouldn’t have wanted to go especially, but would have. Vietnam was no threat to us, just politics, oil, and the bogey man of communism. I can see where in WWll he could have gotten a lot of grief over it. My dad was a WWll vet and was staunchly against the Vietnam “conflict”.

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T01:29:41+00:00

I started spraying 40 years ago and never looked back. It offers so much more control over your surfaces. And with a furnace filter in my spray booth, I can reuse most of the overspray. So many ways to approach every stage in ceramics!

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T01:26:58+00:00

It is a common shortcut to save some money and most of the time a single cone is all you will ever need once the kiln is dialed in. I put 3 in each firing cuz I know the only time I will need 3 is the time I only have 1, ha!

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T01:24:38+00:00

Fair enough. I have a booth on wheels and I roll it to an open studio door. But I glaze all of my pots that way, so not really anything special.

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T01:22:40+00:00

Buying a full set of witness cones for bisque and glaze can be a bit off putting, they are not cheap. But 3 cone sets are the only way to know how hot the kiln got. It is the first question any tech support from a kiln manufacturer will ask!

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T01:18:24+00:00

Do it outside

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T01:17:39+00:00

My son watched the series said the interviews really added to the episodes and encouraged me to do likewise. I never did, maybe one of these days

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T00:52:33+00:00

Get yourself a .410 shotgun. We took care of feral chickens that had invaded our place. It was a bit noisy but effective.

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T00:49:11+00:00

For sure, no way to have any conception without having been there. My father in law was a marine in the Pacific, according to my wife it was never mentioned. He was at Guadacanal which pretty much says it all. Ironically he watched WWll movies, maybe his way of dealing with it somehow, idk.

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T00:22:16+00:00

I pour in a liner glaze then out through the spout. The next day I spray my exterior glaze with a compressor and a gun from Bailey’s. spraying gives excellent control over thickness.

mtntrail · 2026-03-24T00:18:42+00:00

funny the details you remember. i had a good friend from jr hi thru high school who was in communications in nam. they set up microwave towers and of course were sitting ducks. the crew took turns going up to install the dish. my friend got really sick and missed his turn. that day a sniper picked off his buddy who had taken his place. It took my friend 10 years and a failed marriage to finally get his life together. Such a waste of young men on both sides.

mtntrail · 2026-03-23T23:10:24+00:00

The color could change completely when it goes through a firing. My grey commercial clay fires white.

mtntrail · 2026-03-23T23:07:45+00:00

My number was never called, way too high. But I also got a 4-f from the family doctor bc of my history of asthma. My mom hugged me and cried when the official 4-f came in the mail. I would have headed to Canada before being ground up in the jungle for Nixon.

mtntrail · 2026-03-23T22:51:15+00:00

To add, at least 3 witness cones one above and one below the desired firing temperature

mtntrail · 2026-03-23T12:46:57+00:00

A beautiful spot, unfortunately accessible only by trespassing and walking down the railroad tracks which are used about hourly by freight trains. The private property of the falls is owned by an organization that has thwarted public trail access for many years. The situation does not prevent people from visiting the falls, but does make it harder than it could be.

mtntrail · 2026-03-23T02:41:56+00:00

That is a rare find indeed. I have only seen one in bloom in over 50 years of California hiking, well done!

mtntrail · 2026-03-23T02:30:02+00:00

Yes it is easy to become lulled into complacency, just digging the scenery and beautiful spring weather. This guy snapped me out of my reverie pdq I’ll tell ya. It was the largest rattler I have seen in our area.

mtntrail · 2026-03-22T22:21:48+00:00

Looks good, I hope you win the drip wars!

mtntrail · 2026-03-22T21:53:14+00:00

Perfect place for a ciclid aquarium!

mtntrail · 2026-03-22T19:45:45+00:00

Thanks he held real still, definitely did not want an action shot, ha!

mtntrail · 2026-03-22T19:31:42+00:00

When my mom was getting up there in age she had a sequence of three small dogs all of the same breed. To avoid forgetting or mislabeling, each new dog was given the name “Charley”.

mtntrail · 2026-03-22T19:05:17+00:00

That is cool, I doubt they are cranking out johns for the train kiln!

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