Stoke hole design and David's kiln

Stoke hole is laid out in front of my kiln

How many different ways can you construct a stoke hole? Well, I've thought of many different ways, and finally came up with this design for the time being. My hole will be about 10 inches wide and 9 inches high. The bricks on either side of the hole are cut diagonally in the back so I can shove the wood left or right if needed. The block above and below the hole will have to be cut 1 3/8 inches shorter to fit in the space of the opening.

I drove over to David Stuempfle's yesterday to check on his kiln-building progress and ask a couple of stoke hole-related questions. He and Andres Allik from Estonia were busy mixing what looked like refractory mortar or castable while Keith Cagle dug into the surrounding earth with a box blade behind his tractor, doing some grading around the kiln. Keith had delivered a load of firewood to my place earlier in the morning. He gets around.

David assured me that my "brick elbow" would heal, and offered some advice on building the stoke hole on my kiln.

David's kiln in progress

Keith on his tractor