It only took me about two hours to collect enough firewood to burn continuously for three days.

I piled them all up in the shed, just like I did back in my hometown. The firewood was still a bit damp, but as long as it didn't get rained on, it would dry in the shed in two days.

It doesn't matter if it's a bit damp now. I'm confident in my stove. As long as I get it running, even raw branches can burn brightly inside.

Before firing those pottery pieces, there is one more thing I need to take care of.

I mixed the fine kaolin into a thick slurry, and then rolled all the dry pottery pieces in it, except for one place where I didn't use the slurry.

If it's a bowl or jar, the bottom rim won't be glazed. For a large tile, only the front will be glazed, while the back will be completely unglazed.

This is something the old kiln master taught me: the glaze should never be applied completely, just like how one cannot be completely perfect in life.

If the entire surface is glazed, the consequence is that there is nowhere for the stress on the glaze to be released, which will lead to widespread cracking.

In severe cases, the glaze may even peel off completely. Leaving these unglazed areas on the bottom is also for aesthetic reasons, since people usually only look at the surface of an object and don't really care about the bottom.

This time, there's no need to bake it dry again. The already dry pottery clay is highly absorbent, and the slurry on it quickly turns white and dries.

Glazed pottery is more durable and aesthetically pleasing, and it is also easier to clean.

I carefully placed each piece of the processed pottery into the kiln, and then sealed the top of the kiln with a stone slab and mud.

I lit the firewood I had prepared beforehand and put it into the kiln and stove. The area above the stove where the pots were placed was still temporarily sealed with mud and stones.

Once I've smelted enough iron, I'll cast a large iron pot to put on top, which I can use to boil water or something.

Just as I expected, the furnace's ventilation did not disappoint. At first, the flames on both sides were small, and the effect was not yet obvious.

However, as the fire in the stove intensifies, a whooshing sound comes from inside the kiln. If you place your hand at the air inlet of the kiln, you can feel a strong airflow constantly rushing in.

Soon the furnace chamber turned bright red, and at this high temperature, the wet wood burned without any problem.

I threw some of the wet wood I had collected directly into the furnace chamber, and immediately a series of crackling sounds came from inside. Soon, the wet wood was dried by the high temperature and burst into flames.

As usual, wood was added to the other stove as well. Although the fire here was not as intense as the one in the kiln, it was still very hot after returning to the stove from the high temperature of the kiln.

After adding the wet wood, I resealed the firewood inlet of the stove with the stone slab. With the help of the stove's siphon effect, the kiln was running at full power.

The surging, roaring sound poured into the firebox, continuously heating the ceramic vessels inside the kiln.

I feel that I can't fire this kiln for too long. The high temperature is so high that it can even melt steel. If I fire it for too long, I'm afraid the white glaze on it will burn off.

I only have theoretical knowledge and no actual experience in firing kilns. My control over the fire temperature is not yet at the level of the old man's mastery.

So I had to resort to a rather clumsy method: every hour I would open the sealed stone slab at the top a little to check on the pottery inside.

After firing for only about three hours, I noticed that the surface of the pottery had turned bright red, and the glaze had melted and was evenly coated on the surface.

The old man told me that the pottery should be almost ready at this point. However, it cannot be annealed immediately; the temperature needs to be lowered little by little.

Suddenly removing the heat will cause the high-temperature environment inside to become unbalanced, leading to cracks in the pottery, and all your efforts will be wasted.

Following the old man's instructions, I first removed one-fifth of the wood from the stove and kiln.

After about ten minutes, remove one-fifth of the firewood to gradually lower the temperature inside the kiln.

When two-fifths of the furnace was completed, the temperature inside dropped to around 700-800 degrees Celsius, which was just the right temperature for low-temperature kiln firing.

Once the temperature for low-temperature firing is reached, the entire kiln can be sealed off, including the air inlet.

The vents of the stove also need to be sealed to create a sealed environment, allowing the pottery to slowly and steadily solidify at temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius.

The kiln cannot be opened during the cooling process, so to be on the safe side, I decided to open it tomorrow. The old man said that they usually open the kiln to retrieve the pieces the day after firing it the day before.

I didn't expect the pottery-making process to be faster than I thought. Most of the credit goes to the high-temperature kiln; otherwise, I definitely wouldn't have been able to finish the pottery so quickly.

It's still early. As I mentioned before, I'm currently missing a pot lid.

I still have some wood left from making the turntable last time. I think I can piece it together enough to make the lid for my pot.

I used the same splicing method as before to piece together all the wooden boards, and a single large wooden board was made.

Using the same old method, I used two straight tree branches as compasses to measure the diameter of my pot, then drew a circle on the wooden board and sawed it off.

I also needed to add a handle to the wooden board. I shaved a piece of wood and drilled three holes in it, which went all the way through the board.

Next, carve out three long wooden nails, coat them with a mixture of leather glue and resin, hammer them in, and then trim the excess wood at both ends flat.

I tried putting the lid on the pot and found that the thickness of the wooden board couldn't completely seal it. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I decided to do some more work.

Pick up the pot lid and use a knife to carve a bevel along the inner edge of the lid to match the curved surface of the pot.

I put the lid on again and tried. This time, the curved lid fit perfectly. Only then did I nod in satisfaction.

The dining tabletop will arrive tomorrow, so I can't waste the time I have today. It's a bit of a shame that we only have the tabletop and no dining table, but luckily this place is rich in resources, with plenty of trees.

While I was collecting firewood, I found a large, dead tree that had fallen to the ground. It looked like it had just fallen recently, as the cut was still clearly visible.

I noticed that the inside of this tree is a purplish-red color. I don't know if it's the kind of rosewood used for making furniture, as I don't know much about wood.

However, such a beautiful color would make a beautiful dining table if I could bring it back. With that thought, I took Top back to the forest where the dead tree was.