I want to increase the heat conductivity of clay cookwaresI think metal filings will have minimal expansion when heatedCan the metal filings be added during the firing of clay?
Since you didn't get an answer the first time, I'll state the obviousFrom everything I've read, your wooden skewers will most like burn if they are not pretreated by soakingI have two suggestionsTake the food off the skewers, pretreat them and them put them back togetherWhere did you buy these pre-made kababos? Check with the store to make sure that the skewers have not already been pre-treatedAnyone selling these should know of the risks of cooking with untreated woodPerhaps you'll get lucky and they will have been pre-treated alreadyIf not, don't take a chance on ruining your already yummy-sounding mealTake them apart and put them back togetherIf it's just the handles that are wood, cover them with foil as you yourself already suggestedIf not, you could always cover them entirely with foil but that would defeat the whole purposeSorry I didn't have some magic solution.
Actually, most metals expand more than pottery/clay on heatingAlso, many metals will oxidize during the firing, (particularly when as fine particles) the particles often will grow considerably when they convert to oxide, so it might damage the ceramic ware, and you will actually have the metal partly or completely as the oxideThe presence of some of these metal oxides may lower the melting point of the ceramic enough that it might melt during firing, a fine mess in the kiln! Added: Why not just cook in a metal container then ? It would probably require less effort and energy use than grinding metal to filings, mixing with clay and firingAlso, certain foods are somewhat acidic and might leach some of the metal out of the cookware and, over time, lead to toxicity issuesIf, when you say clay cookware, you are referring to the light weight and very porous fired clay ware such as is used for flower pots, etc, you might be able to get better thermal conductivity with a very dense (low porosity) high-alumina ceramic fired at very high temperatures (such as used for power line insulators and the like) There are ceramics with inherently higher thermal conductivity such as crystalline high purity aluminum nitride and berylium oxide, but they are too expensive and Berylium compounds have toxicity issues.
Skewers will sometimes burn on the ends, you can foil them if you want toThey won't catch fire at least mine never haveYou can still soak them with the meat and veggies on them in ice water for just a few minutes tooIt shouldn't hurt the veggies or the meatAfter all, we wash the meat or rinse it, and we wash the veggies tooShould be just fine.
