Loafing

[offcntr]

So I've been asked twice in the last couple of weeks (admittedly by mother and daughter, but they're on opposite sides of the country, so it still counts) about making loaf pans, for banana bread. This was my reply to the second ask.

Regarding loaf pans... I made them many years ago, and had nothing but trouble with them. They start as a wheel-thrown, bottomless ring, which is then shaped into a rectangle and attached to a slab base once it's firm enough to handle.

The problem is that clay shrinks as it dries, and if the sides and bottom aren't at the same point in the process, they'll crack apart when dry. Worse, they won't, but hidden stress will be introduced into the pan that then lets go in use, in the oven. Never a good look.

I finally had to give up on the form entirely. The failure--and frustration--rate was just too high.

Comments

[lolaley]

What about slub making and later shaping around a form?

[offcntr]

That'd be a way to go, if I wanted to, but you still wind up with seams (more of them in fact), and it takes more time cleaning up the edges and prettying the rim. Warping is also a potential problem with slab work, and I'd need to make room to store forms. I feel like the best and most efficient way to make loaf pans (and other non-round forms) is probably slip-casting, and that opens up a whole different set of concerns.

This really sounds like me just whining, But I don't wanna, doesn't it?