$8.48
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This is dust left over from insulating firebrick, one source being kiln manufacturers who make electric kilns which are usually made of 100% soft, insulating firebrick. It's a fine powder (about 200 mesh) with scattered larger particles (perhaps 50 mesh). The most common kilns in use today are electric kilns, and if you have one it's probably rated a cone 8 (2280 degrees F) and is made with k-23 insulating ("soft") firebrick which is rated at 2300F. This is powder from the insulating bricks your ^8 kiln is made of.
It is not from the hard, non-porous firebrick often used in gas kilns, which can be lined on the inside with more durable hard firebrick and with soft insulating firebrick on the outside for insulation.
A good use for it is repairing the walls of your kiln if there are dents, chips, or cracks needing repair. It's used as a fine grog/aggregate mixed with a refractory cement to make a patching material. Another use for firebrick dust is grog added like any other grog to a clay body when making ceramic ware. Firebrick is made from two major materials, alumina and silica (mullite is an example). Increasing the proportion of alumina makes the brick serviceable at higher temps. Since alumina is expensive relative to silica, the cost of the firebrick increases with it's rising temperature rating.
Historically firebricks were not invented until 1822 in Wales (although other sources cite 1749). The most basic definition of firebrick is brick made of refractory materials that will not deform under the high temperatures required to fire ceramics. What kind of ceramics? Probably, at a minimum, you could say common earthenware fired at ^04 (1945 F) or stoneware bisque temperature, around ^06 (1828 F).
But although firebrick is historically recent, ceramicware was being made millenia ago without firebrick (as far back as 10,000 years ago). The first "kiln" was the most basic, the "pit kiln", nothing more than a hole in the ground with clay pots laid upon each other and fuel (wood or anything that burns like straw or manure) piled on top and the sides, with more added as the fire burned down. Not a very efficient design (the fuel needs to be below the pots to be fired, not above). The beehive kiln was the first to "flip the pit" and have the fuel burn below the ware. One type of beehive kiln was in use in China around 500 AD.
Insulating firebrick is very porous, making it a good refractory insulation to save heat and therefore money every time you fire. Insulating firebrick with high alumina can be made to be serviceable up to 3300 F. It's usually easier to find firebrick with the highest temp ratings in the hard type brick. If even higher temps are needed then silicon carbide is used which can be rated up to 4000 F.
Hard firebrick is more durable and often used with commercial high production kilns. It can withstand kiln "accidents" better.
But the lightweight insulation firebricks which are porous and insulating have great advantages, preventing more heat loss and also being much easier to cut and machine with grooves when a kiln is built.
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Sep 8, 2024
It was exactly what i needed to repair my kiln and mix with Skutt kiln patch
Dario Cantatore
Dec 22, 2023
Loved it. Works great!! Definitely recommend.
Dinah