Refiring Ceramics

Refiring pottery and porcelain comes with many issues that can ruin ware, knowing about these will help you do it successfully.

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Refiring ceramic ware can be a necessity because of the process (e.g. decal, lustre or successive glaze firings) or to repair defects (e.g. crawling).

However, refiring ware can lead to problems. The most common is daunting, avoiding that involves careful control of the firing schedule. The second firing is actually the first time the fired ceramic matrix, as it existed coming out of the first glaze firing, is heated upward to maturity. That ceramic is much more brittle than it was in the bisque or dry state and it will propagate quartz inversion cracks very well. It is also dense and has little ability to withstand the variation in thermal expansion that comes when the temperature across a piece of ware is not kept even. A second firing to the same temperature also gives the clay body double the heat treatment. Dark burning clay bodies can respond by going darker or changing to red to brown. Vitreous bodies, especially, when fired beyond their point of maximum density, can blister and bloat on a second firing. Warping and plucking are also a good possibility. The incomplete decomposition of any body materials will continue in a second firing, possibly generating gases that could cause boating or glaze blisters.

Glazes with high melt fluidity often blister, or blister more, on a second firing. The glaze materials, as a mix, were melted on the first firing and combined to form a glass. On the second firing that glass will melt completely, and seal the body surface, at a much lower temperature than on the first firing. Frits, by contrast, have already been melted, thus glazes containing higher percentages of frits, will yield fewer surprises because it is actually their third firing. Reactive glazes can mellow on second firing (the phase differences created the first time around can bleed together). Stains that depend of fast firing with change color.
The color of stain/glaze pairings that must be fired quickly to survive incompatibilities will certainly change (e.g. zinc glazes with zinc-hostile colors). Glazes that depend on crystallization for the visual effect will certainly fire different on the second time, often crystallizing more.

Can overglaze decoration be done on already glaze-fired ware? Yes. The glaze will melt even better than the first firing and colors will embed, dissolve, bleed, and crystallize according to the stain medium into which the pigment or oxide is mixed. Of course, plenty of CMC gum in the overglaze colors will be needed to make brush strokes adhere and stay put.

Can crazing be fixed by refiring. No. Crazing happens because of a mismatch in thermal expansion between body and glaze, firing can only hide that temporarily, it will come back.

Can we predict how refiring will affect thermal expansion (CTE)? If you can get through this paragraph you will realize the answer is no. CTE could increase or decrease in refiring due to many factors. If a body is high in feldspar then the second firing is going to give the feldspar more time to dissolve the particles of quartz, that will reduce the thermal expansion. If the body has less feldspar and plenty of kaolin the conversion from kaolinite to meta kaolin will advance further but whether that reduces or increases thermal expansion will depend on the amount of quartz present and the degree to which the feldspar glass can absorb it. If pyrophyllite is present the degree to which its natural mineral form is changed in firing 2 will increase CTE. The same if wollastonite is present. If the quartz is of a larger particle size the CTE will change less on refire (if there is significant feldspar present). The particle size of the kaolin will also determine the extent to which its conversion and dissolution will proceed first and second firing. If frit is present in the body the picture is more complex depending on whether it is a low or high-expansion product. The density of the body and the degree to which it was first fired past zero-porosity point will affect first firing completion of vitrification. Bodies are often overfired past zero porosity point as standard practice, these are less predictable in fired character because decomposition of mineral species is occurring. If bodies are underfired as practice then the second firing will certainly mature them more is sintering is not the primary bonding mechanism, CTE could increase or decrease according to many other complex factors. The thickness of ware, area of contact with shelves, thickness of shelves will determine the evenness of maturity development on ware cross-section. Different placement of ware in the kiln such that different parts are element-facing will affect the development of CTE distribution across a piece and the evenness is its distribution. The amount of very fine quartz in the ball clay used in the recipe will affect whether the feldspar-rich glass is able to absorb more quartz or meta kaolin. If glazes are applied thickly they may impose compressive forces that may affect or overcome the body’s imposition of its own CTE. If the body contains talc as a flux it is likely to mature more on second firing, whether that increase reduces or increases CTE is dependent on many other factors. Interactions of all of the above can affect microstructure development or decay that that in turn affects CTE in complex ways.