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[NW_Kohaku]

These (http://www.abana.org/resources/discus/messages/273/1163.jpg) are what i use when i blacksmith, and they blow a ton of air.

I wonder if anything like these would work for your super hot furnaces (maybe have an extra dwarf cranking it (screwpump style) so the other dwarf can harness the heat)

Its a fairly simple, but effective system(and a hell of a workout if your pumping the thing for a long while xD)

Edit: Generally while blacksmithing, you dont gotta get this spinning that fast to generate a lot of wind, but if you really crank the thing hard im sure you could put out some massive amount of air, especially if you modify the gear ratio a little ;]

I'm actually basing this off of knowledge I have of the way that the ancient Chinese made air-pumping systems, but I don't know exactly what their system looked like, so that may be similar or may not be.  (Although they were described to me as being more like a box.)

The idea was to make it hooked up to a mechanical source of power, like a waterwheel, so that you don't have to pump it, but I guess a manual pumping dwarf could work, as well.

[ronnyfire]

I live in southern California, sadly i haven't done any blacksmithing in a year at least. If you do a little google fu im sure you could find a cheap class to start =]

Its pretty simple, and a lot of fun. and you get awesome metal trinkets of your own creation out of it!

I would definitely say anyone who may be even only a little interested should check it out.

[/Derail]

im sure hooking up something like this to a waterwheel or windmill would be an easy task for any mechanics dwarf.

I do like the idea of porcelain goods and such, something with a bit more of a gentle feel than -obsidian mug-, for your more noble of dwarfs =P

[Quatch]

Chiming in on the awesomeness of this. I do pottery as a hobby (cone 10 stoneware (porcelain-ish really, but not thin) in oxidization) and can verify Gazz as being quite authoritative here.

I just want to add, with respect to fuel use, that your firing reaction should take into account the amount of product. If it is 10 green->10 finished using 8 fuel, that is ok. If it is 1 green->1 finished, 8 fuel, that probably isnt ok. Kilns generally take many pots (barring really huge pots). The difficulty is in mixing raw goods (cups+jugs in same firing?).

As far as I can see it, all of the ideas here should be implementable in the new version with custom workshops. It'd be nice to be able to use the default kiln building (for game system reasons, not realism), but that probably isn't workable (mod-incapatability).

For low temperature work, it is more common to find lead in the glaze- it makes it melt at a lower temperature, and come out glossy.

You should probably combine this system with brick making, I'm sure there will be piles of threads around, and the kiln part will be similar. Foamy clay bricks are also a good insulator.

As to the production of powders from stone, call it a ball mill (barrel with hard balls rolled about until the balls crush sand into powder)? Its a pretty much required step in creating fine enough powders for glazes not to have chunks and speckles.

As to refining clay, you could probably do the suspension washing (mix in lots of water, let the sand settle out, remove sand, let clay settle out (takes a long time) strain off the water, reclaim clay). Add a bit of power to mix it up, and you probably could scale it up. This would be helpful for all of those sandy-clay soil types, produce both useable sand, and usable clay.

I would definitely go for a dwarven tea-pot industry. This teapot menaces with spikes of iron!

[Virex]

As to the production of powders from stone, call it a ball mill (barrel with hard balls rolled about until the balls crush sand into powder)? Its a pretty much required step in creating fine enough powders for glazes not to have chunks and speckles.

I'd say that a hammer mill is more dwarven (Rotating set of hammers with a grating. Crushes the rocks to a fine powder untill it fits through the grating.) Would probably require a mechanism, a block and several warhammers

[NW_Kohaku]

Actually, what I was thinking of was a set of pairs of enormous screws that are set closer and closer together, crushing the stones into finer powder as they pass through each one, although a hammer/piston does sound dwarfier.

I could probably also throw a psuedo-automated system (like the way that millstones are treated) for something like a suspension washing workshop, involving tanks or barrels with water.

Is there, perhaps, something that could be in the water that would speed the process up, any?  Something could be put in the Alchemist's lab, like making the water more basic or acidic?

---

Also,

This is a masterwork porcelain teapot.  It is made from porcelain.  The glazing is cobalt blue, red, and brown, exceptionally colored with cobalt glaze, iron glaze, and manganese glaze.  This item menaces with spikes of elf bone.
On the item is a masterfully designed image of Ina Treehugger the elf and Urist McAxelord the dwarf.  Urist McAxelord is striking down Ina Treehugger.  This image relates to the killing of the elf Ina Treehugger by the dwarf Urist McAxelord in Fortname in the early Spring of 205 during the elven trade caravan massacre, "The Onslaught of Boredom".  It is made from masterfully made cobalt glaze, iron glaze, and manganese glaze.

[Quatch]

I think I've got a few pictures of a line of ball mills from the sudbury nickle mine in canada. Very dwavenly. I'll see if I can dig those up when I get home tonight.

As to water additives, did you mean for separating sand/clay, or for removing particular rock types from a mix (ie crushed granite-> feldspar+quartz+amphibole, then chemically removing the amphibole?).

As to the first, there is a flocculant, which you could use to accelerate the deposition of the finest clay particles (note: extremely fine clay particles can be used as a glaze substitute, known as terra sigilata (sp?), or "terra sig".), however it isnt needed for the sand portion, that falls out in a matter of minutes (home experiment, put dirt in a glass cup with water, shake well, and watch it settle by density). On the industrial scale, modeling the settling ponds would be more complicated. The new contaminant flow and accumulation system seems like it is perfectly devised for this, if it would allow us to both separate two contaminants at a workshop/settling pond, and convert settled clay into raw stoneware body.

As to the second, acid is probably your best bet, although I have little knowledge here, silica rocks (quartz) are 'acidic volcanic', and would be more resistant.

[NW_Kohaku]

Well, I was thinking of something a little simpler than actually having a resevoir/settling pond, and instead just having a type of workshop with barrels filled with water that would just be left to settle over time.