#skutt

I answered this once before, but a ways back and I sincerely apologize in the absolutely massive delay in answering this query. So what I used primarily for a while, and still actively use for my Luster firings is a Paragon Caldera.

It is about 8" wide and high inside, which is not a lot, but was perfect for my small figurines. I looked up the pricing on one of these guys now and it is astronomical. I cannot in all honesty remember what I paid for it, but it was somewhere in the $500 - $700 range and I'm now seeing it listed for 1k+. While this kiln is perfect if you're firing small things, I think it is more ideal for jewelry making or more low fire pieces. Because I fire to cone 5 (approximately 2200 degrees Fahrenheit) I tended to burn out the elements fairly fast, and it took basically the same time or longer to fire to this higher temp as larger kilns.

Because I have been making larger cows and now dishes, I could not feasibly keep firing in such a small kiln and so over the summer obtained a Skutt 818.

This is still a small kiln by many potters' standards, but is about 32" x 32" inside which for me is simply gigantic and wonderful. The pricing on this guy is 1.6k (I seriously cannot believe that I am seeing that Caldera priced at more than half of this bad boy), and it was cheaper earlier this year, kiln prices took a bit of a leap at the second half of the summer of 2021. I am loving it so far, it fires so incredibly fast, though am not looking forward to eventual element replacement on a kiln that has more than two elements.

So this was very long and rambling to answer that almost all of my experience with kilns is with electric ones. I have been around Gas kilns, and depending on what you're looking to achieve gas kilns can give you really cool glaze effects and colorations, but because of the nature of me using primarily under glazes I don't desire any variation or mystery in what comes out of my firings so they aren't something I've dabbled with. I hope this helps the teeniest amount, thank you so much for the question, and to everyone else who has put in inbox queries I will be trying to more regularly work through them. I am by not means an expert on the infinity types of ways you can work, shape, glaze, and fire pottery, but can provide a smidgen of advice in some areas, thanks to anyone who read through this wall of text haha, and see you in another wall next time.

i mean you know what i’m going to say, and i don’t really want to say it, but