The Armour Archive

I find myself in need of a kiln for glass working, and was wondering if there was a medieval kiln that I would be able to make. I can't afford the modern ones, and was hoping I could make a medieval equivalent here at home.

I've done a bit of searching on the 'net and plan to do some more, but I would appreciate any info you all might have. The kiln needs to be able to sustain temps of around 1300 to 1400 degrees for a few hours, and then be able to retain the heat after the heat source is removed so that the glass can cool slowly.

Thanks,
Cat

This isn't my area, but try getting in touch with Vandy at www.vandybennett.com or www.historicworkshop.com/
her website is a bit out of date, but there should be contact information on one of them. I know she's done modern glass and wood fired roman pot ash glass, so she probably has a good idea of what happened in between the two.
Hope that helps,
Gwynnin

From the illstrations i have seen of kilns, they aeem to be a mud or clay, irregular structure, (probably brick lined - that is, firebricks), with a large opening to the bottom for fueling, and one or two smaller openings above, for the glass blowers to insert their blow pipes. Top the lot with a lean to, and that sums up the imagry I have seen.

Gwynnin,
Thanks for the links! Vandy has some wood sculptures on there that I absolutely love! I have emailed her, and hopefully she won't think it's too weird of a request.

Chef,
Thanks for the info! It sounds like something I could probably make, but I wonder how they regulated temperature. They probably just "knew" when it was hot enough, which is a skill that will take too long for me to learn (want this to be a Christmas present), so maybe I could find an affordable thermometer that would work.

Thanks again!
Cat

Some glassworking kilns in illustrations from the BNF:

• Fr. 1307, fol. 236
• Fr. 1312, fol. 45v
• Fr. 9137, fol. 309
• Fr. 12319, fol. 316
• Fr. 12320, fol. 209
• Fr. 12321, fol. 222v
• Fr. 12322, fol. 191
• Fr. 19081, fol. 202
• Latin 6822, fol. 132
• Latin 6823, fol. 163
• NAF 6593, fol. 200

(Hmm, maybe I should set up a linkspage on these ...)

Edited to add: British Library Add. 24189, fol. 16

You mean you don't have ese on your site already? You're slippin' Karen.

Thanks for the pics! I think I have a general idea, now I just need some fire brick and a thermometer. This may be just a bit over the top for a one off project, but I'm bored so what the heck.

Thanks!
Cat

Cat wrote:You mean you don't have ese on your site already? You're slippin' Karen.

Well, I think what it came down to is a question of what areas to focus on. Images of glassworking and glass kilns are going to be really different from images of glass-painters and others in the stained glass trade. (Going into a list of ALL POSSIBLE GLASS VESSELS or ALL POSSIBLE STAINED GLASS is beyond the scope of what I generally focus on for these sorts of linkspages.)

I'll probably repost the list above to larsdatter.com shortly -- probably with a separate page of stained-glass-workers too.

Check out the pictures (and text, if your Swedish is good enough) on http://www.hantverkslagret.org/site/FOV ... 7-00090FD7

Karen,
You're supposed to have pics and info on every single bit of Medieval material culture. You're Karen Lardsdatter for goodness sake! The Goddess of Medieval material culture! I could have sworn we sent you the memo...

Ralph,
Thanks for the link! Unfortunately, I don't read Swedish, and Babelfish doesn't list Swedish to English as a choice, but it did give me an idea. A crazy, hair-brained idea.

Hair (or is it "hare")-Brained Kiln Idea #1: Make a kiln out of fire brick, or a kiln shaped object lined with ceramic wool (or whatever that stuff is). Use a piece of 2.5mm steel as a shelf (maybe with some holes drilled in it so heat can come through), sitting atop a few fire bricks to keep it up off the wood fire. Set a few firebricks on top of the steel shelf for sitting the work on. Use a hair dryer as the blower/thermostat. Use the steel as the thermometer (check hot steel color chart to gauge approx. temp). Use a steel mold for "slumping" the glass. Set flat glass on top of steel mold. Heat up forge, using blower to control the fire, keeping the steel shelf in the color range it needs to be. Heat glass until it slumps over the mold. Shut off blower and let kiln cool gradually.

Is this crazy, or plausible?

Cat

Cat wrote:Karen,
You're supposed to have pics and info on every single bit of Medieval material culture. You're Karen Lardsdatter for goodness sake! The Goddess of Medieval material culture! I could have sworn we sent you the memo...

Oh, no, I'm just Karen Larsdatter, Archive Member. You must have me confused with someone else!

Nevertheless, I've gotten a start on http://larsdatter.com/glasswork.htm and have started collecting links to images of stained glass workers too.