Dear Minkoo,
In agreement with previous comments, I suspect that charcoal fuel is
harder than wood fuel when burnt at high temperatures - presumably
because the moisture has already been removed by the conversion process
(although this is based upon my own observations rather than scientific
evidence!).
In general, however, I do not think that the process of firing
ceramics (if this is what you have) necessarily requires the use of
charcoal rather than wood as a fuel. Iron smelting/smithing, for
instance, do need charcoal fuel to achieve the high temperatures
necessary, and also to minimise the smoke while working the metal.
Given the high labour/value costs of converting wood to charcoal, it
wouldn't necessarily be cost effective to use charcoal for pottery
kilns. You didn't say where your material is from, but In Britain, at
least, wood seems to have been mainly used until the large scale
operations of the Industrial Age when coal became the main fuel for
kiln firing.
Best wishes
Dana
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Dana Challinor MA (Oxon), MSc
Freelance Charcoal Specialist
Get 50% off Norton Security 2009 - http://www.tiscali.co.uk/security
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