Big Rock
December 10th, 2005 -
My “Senpai”, ‘elder apprentice’, and I built a kiln while I was in Japan.
Not long into the process, we ran into a big rock, right where the kiln was to go. We tried to move it with a backhoe, it was too big; we tried to dig it out, but it seemed to be the size of a house. So, we attacked it with a jack hammer, a sledge hammer, we spent hours PING-PING-PINGing, but it was remarkably hard. We worked after our regular apprenticeship duties were finished each day, until we were tired, but we were getting nowhere. We decided to redouble our efforts on a Saturday, we arranged with Sensei to give both of us the same day off. We got there early, and by 8:30 we were projectile-sweating like cartoon characters, but the dent in the big rock was depressingly small.
Sensei walked up the hill to where we were working. He had a suggestion: dig out a bit more beneath the rock, build a fire to heat it, then quench it with water. Very likely the rock would develop cracks, and break easily; if not, that meant it naturally had the qualities of a firebrick, and by slightly altering the kiln shape we could incorporate the rock into the kiln wall. Turns out, the rock did develop the cracks, and it broke into a million pieces when we attacked again with the sledge hammer.
Lesson: hard work is good, smart work is better.