Factory Price High Temperature Resistance Alumina Ceramic kiln stilts
1. Description
All the ceramic parts on this page are good to Cone 10, but not the metal parts. Mid and high fire pots are usually not stilted. Instead, glaze is wiped off the base of the pot. There are reasons for this. For one thing, clay deforms as it approaches Vitrification, so your piece may deform around the stilt/rod. Also, metal softens at such high temperatures, and cannot take much weight. Sometimes people have mid-fire pieces they do want to stilt, such as jewelry, ornaments, etc. and they use stilts for this purpose. Just keep in mind the metal rods will begin to deform as you exceed cone 6, and even earlier if they are heavily loaded. Spread the weight over as many stilt points as possible to optimize your result.
At high temperatures, glaze becomes molten and sticks permanently to anything it touches, such as the kiln shelf. Stilts prevent this. A stilt is high temperature wire embedded in a ceramic base. The stilt suspends glazed ware on the wire points to separate the piece from the kiln shelf. Stilts also allow air to circulate around large, flat pieces. Stilts are needed for glazed ware, not greenware.
Stilts can be used in firings up to 2000°F (1093°C). They cannot be used to fire porcelain and stoneware, which fire to cone 6 - 10. At those temperatures, the wire points would embed into the clay or bend. Stilts, however, can be used to fire overglaze onto porcelain at china painting temperatures.
