Pit kiln

This page was last verified for Vintage Story version 1.19.8.

A pit kiln is a hole used to convert raw clay items to usable crockery.

Safety

Pit kilns can set surrounding items/creatures on fire - up to 2 blocks away from the pit. Choose a spot at least 2 blocks away from your house or anything else flammable. Remove grass, bushes, and branches in a margin of at least two blocks; better yet, replace soil with packed dirt or something else that cannot grow grass.

Embers from a pit kiln can easily reach flammable materials 2 blocks above. Be careful where you put a pit kiln.

Mitigation

• If you have an already-fired watering can that contains water, you can extinguish a small blaze.
• Breaking a container (such as a wooden chest) will make it drop its contents. If you have space in your inventory, you can quickly pick up the items to drop a safe distance away.
• Breaking a block that's currently burning can drop the log etc as well as prevent it igniting to nearby blocks.
• Admin commands can be used to toggle AllowFireSpread in a server.

Creation

Materials

Each kiln requires:

• 1 to 4 unfired pieces of pottery created by clay forming ; 4 pieces is a more efficient use of materials.
• 10 dry grass : 5 layers of dry grass, 2 grass per layer.
• 8 sticks : 2 layers of sticks, 4 sticks per layer (if you have only 1-3 sticks in hand, you cannot add them to a pit kiln).
• 4-8 pieces of fuel : a few larger items, such as storage vessels require 2 layers of fuel to fully cover. Note that your choice of fuel directly affects how long the pit kiln takes to finish.
• Recommended: nonflammable blocks to build a roof over the kiln(s)

Steps

A pit kiln is created by digging a hole 1 block deep surrounded by full blocks that are non-flammable. If you try to add tinder to a pit bordering a block that's flammable (such as peat), or that is less-than-full (such as a path block), you should see an error message at the bottom of the screen. Many clay items are small enough that you can fit 4 in a single pit kiln. If you want to bake more than 4 at a time, create a checkerboard pattern in the ground. If you place clay items in a hole wider than 1x1, you won't be able to proceed with adding tinder around the crockery.

The various fill stages of a pit kiln for 4 cooking pots.

The final two stages of a storage vessel's kiln setup. Note that the top layer is above ground.

In the Settings menu, you can toggle interact tips that show in detail what to do next.

• Once enough fuel has been added, the pit kiln is ready to ignite with a torch or firestarter , using Sneak + .

• Because rain and snow can extinguish a pit kiln, some sort of nonflammable roof is recommended. Precipitation totally resets a pit kiln's progress: if 23 of 24 hours had elapsed when rain put out the fire, it will need 24 full hours when relit (assuming firewood as the fuel; other fuels can speed things up).

• When the process is finished, the fire and smoke will stop. Additionally, the fuel items will disappear, leaving only the finished pottery items in the hole. Fired items appear dark rather than gray, and no longer have "raw" in front of their name in the block info overlay.

Fuel choice

The following table breaks down length of firing time from igniting the kiln to the finished product being available for pick-up.

Fuel type	Duration (minutes)
Firewood	40
Peat brick	32
Brown coal	28
Black coal	24
Charcoal	20
Coke	20

Fireable items

Pottery Item	Amount
Bowl	4
Cooking pot	4
Crock	4
Storage vessel	1
Flowerpot	4
Jug	4
Planter	1
Watering can	1
Shingle	48
Crucible	4
Anvil mold	1
Falx blade mold	1
Hoe mold	1
Shovel mold	1
Axe mold	1
Pickaxe mold	1
Prospecting pick mold	1
Hammer mold	1
Helve hammer mold	1
Ingot mold	2
Lamellae mold	1
Blue clay brick *	12
Fire clay brick **	12

* Can only be made using blue clay.
** Can only be made using fire clay.

History

Clay items used to be fired in a normal campfire.

Notes

• Pit kilns are the only fire hazard, other than a player using a torch/firestarter directly on a flammable block. A campfire for cooking/smelting can be constructed directly on wood. A lit torch cannot ignite anything above it.
• To get sticks in bul, break every leaf block on a tree. Chopping a tree grants significantly lower rates of seeds.
• To get grass in bulk, smith a scythe. In winter, a sycthe might become less useful, as most grass might be covered by snow, which takes extra time/durability to remove.

packed dirt doesn't fall

Video Tutorials

Pit kiln guide in the Survival Handbook read aloud