Early the next morning, Shitou and Song Xuan came to the kiln with great interest. In the middle of the night, Shitou had already gotten up and put out the fire in the larger kiln with water.
Moreover, all the charcoal was used this time, and the time was controlled very well, so the temperature in the furnace has basically cooled down by this time. Only the upper cover plate still has a little residual heat, which will basically not affect the removal of the inside. of pottery.
If the temperature inside the furnace is too different from that outside, opening the kiln directly to get pottery will definitely affect the quality of the pottery inside. Song Xuan knew that the famous ice cracks were caused by the huge temperature difference.
Opening a kiln directly in the tribe will definitely not produce anything good-looking, but it will definitely have a big impact on the quality of the pottery.
After opening it, gently take out the bowls inside. This batch of bowls is obviously much darker than the ones that were taken out yesterday. This must be related to the fact that the plant ash is applied more evenly. As for the ones that are not painted, they are also formed on the surface. It's a dark color, just not as dark as it was painted on.
After weighing several different pottery blanks and the fired pottery bowls, Song Xuan said to the stone:
"Give it a try!"
First of all, he naturally dropped it directly to the ground. In order to ensure a little bit of rigor, Song Xuan also brought a few bowls that everyone used normally. Sure enough, with a little bit of force, they broke directly.
What was somewhat beyond Song Xuan's expectation was that these pottery bowls were all fine if they were dropped with about the same force. It wasn't until Song Xuan used more force that one of them cracked.
The first ones to show cracks were naturally those pottery blanks that were only painted with vegetation gray water. There was a clear gap between them and the other two types.
But even so, this is still better than the pottery made before. Song Xuan was not sure when he dropped the first one, but after smashing a few more, Song Xuan was basically sure that this was going to be hard. One point, pick up the fragments of the two, and you can clearly feel it if you smash them. The one painted with vegetation gray water is a little harder, but the difference is not very obvious.
Unexpectedly, plant ash, the most common among this tribe, can actually improve the quality of pottery.
As for the other two types of pottery bowls made from pottery blanks, Song Xuan couldn't tell the difference for a while. The two shattered with similar strength, and basically used a lot of force to cut the pottery pieces together. Comparing them, I can’t tell which one is better.
But from the direct comparison between pottery painted with vegetation gray water and unpainted pottery, Song Xuan also knew that painting at least had some effect.
As for whether it is obvious or not, it just adds a small process. This process is not very complicated. After the pottery is made, it can be completed slowly while it is drying.
But there is another point that makes Song Xuan a little unsure, which is the time to put out the fire. Song Xuan asked Shi Shi to continue to explore whether it is better to make some smoke when the fire is burning in the middle, or when it is almost over. better.
As for the smoke, it would be easier to handle it. When the time comes, we can get some hay and put it in the kiln to burn it. There will be a lot of smoke.
Observing the fired black pottery carefully, Song Xuan felt that in the future, stone could be used to make the pottery thinner. Anyway, the quality had improved so much, and it would feel much better to hold it thinner. Otherwise, every pottery would be like now. They are all very thick, so the weight is naturally relatively large.
Comparing several different pottery bowls together, Song Xuan suddenly made a new discovery:
"Look at the stone!"
Song Xuan pointed to the two pottery bowls painted with vegetation gray water and said to Shitou:
"Look at these two, are they a little brighter?"
"Hmm~ God's envoy, it seems so!"
The two of them had previously focused all their attention on the hardness. Only then did Song Xuan realize that the one painted with vegetation gray water was obviously more translucent. He stroked it with his hand, and it even gave Song Xuan a very smooth feeling.
"Is this the glaze?"
Thinking of this, Song Xuan said to the stone:
"Bring yesterday's over and compare!"
Sure enough, there was a thin layer of glaze on the surface that was fired before, but it may be that there was too little left over from the ash water of the vegetation, and it was far less pure than the one made yesterday, so it was very thin, so neither of them noticed it before.
This made Song Xuan even more happy than getting a black pottery. Song Xuan still knew a little bit about the glaze making method. At least he had seen it from Robinson. He even experimented with it before and made some. The fine sand was on the surface of the pottery, but for some reason, it did not produce a particularly beautiful glaze. Instead, the pottery produced was pitted, ugly and difficult to use.
Although the presence or absence of glaze does not affect the use of pottery, of course, with it, it will be more classy in the future and it will be much easier to clean.
But Song Xuan always had a small obsession in his heart, and when it was suddenly solved, he naturally felt very happy. It seemed that the key to forming the glaze was grass and wood gray water. Although he knew that this was not the best method, he As long as it can be made here in Tengshe, it will be good. As for those colorful glazes, Song Xuan has never had extravagant hopes.
What Song Xuan didn't expect was that the manpower he arranged at random would be so talented in making pottery. In any case, he had figured out all these methods, and even black pottery was not even heard of by Song Xuan. Said.
At this time, Song Xuan was also thinking about the bits of knowledge about pottery in his head, and then he remembered that there seemed to be a kind of bone china. Although he didn't know if it would be useful in making pottery, it could at least be used as an experiment. , it is very difficult to remember this time. Even if it is useless, it will come in handy in the future when the tribe finds kaolin suitable for porcelain.
There are a lot of bones in the tribe, and there is even a lot of bone meal now. When everyone polishes weapons, they will grind some of them off. Of course, the bone meal produced for the maintenance of weapons is very small.
But every time you make a new weapon, there are a lot of them. For example, the arrows you are making now require grinding a piece of bone into the shape of an arrowhead. The amount of bone powder produced is quite large.
After telling Shi Shi the method of making pottery, Song Xuan gave up completely. Now he finally saw that Shi Shi knew much more about making pottery than he did, and he could only improve on two points at most. There are dispensable opinions, but most of the time he is still a decision-maker.
Song Xuan also knew that although Shitou liked to share everything with him, it was mainly out of respect for him and had little impact on the outcome.
