Building the arch

Now that the roof is up, we can build the arch of the kiln.  Tom had saved the beautiful arch form he built out of wood, a number of years ago when he built this kiln before.


First, we supported the arch form on top of 2 x 4's, then placed the bricks on top of the form, and worked from the outsides toward the center.  The final, center row was the trickiest, as it needed to be a tight fit to be sure the bricks would maintain the arch shape once the form was dropped and pulled out.

We then covered the top of the arch bricks with a thin layer of kaolin and sand, for extra seal.  Next, the arch will come out.