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Fahrenheit. Firing to lower temperatures will not produce the same hardness. Following are some of the sources for gas firing: SCHOOLS - Various college classes, adult education courses, and private instructors maintain gas kilns for student use. DO-IT-YOURSELF - This entails purchasing a gas kiln and making the nec essary hookups to a source of bottled LP gas. This all costs several hundred dollars. Take a college course or private course through a competent potter to learn the principles and mechanics of gas firing before undertaking this step yourself. PRIVATE I N DIVIDUALS Across the nation, there are thousands of professional potters selling their hand-thrown wares through art and craft shows attended by the public. Some of them will be amenable to letting you pay for custom firing in their kilns. This allows you to have the job done professionally. As a way of developing this contact, you might buy several pieces from them at a show, and ask if you can come to their studio later to buy more of their wares. If you appear to be a good customer, the potter might agree to fire a few dozen pins for you. To make sure your contact is a competent profes sional, check out their product line. They should carry a wide range of practi cal goods (cups, bowls, planters, etc.) and should stock large numbers of items. Avoid those who don't Seem to have much to choose from. Check the quality of their firing by breaking one of the inexpensive items you bought from them. The broken edge, revealing the inside of the fired clay, should be a medium to dark brown. If it appears very dark, almost blackish, the work is poorly fired (over-vitrification) and is too brittle. Do not let such a potter do your firing. Make sure you check the broken edge, as an external examination will not reveal this type of sloppy firing. Of course, make sure their goods are stoneware fired to a cone 1 0. Secu rity is of primary consideration when firing in someone else's kiln, or when having a custom firing done. Do not use you r real name. Never reveal the intended use of the ceramic pins unless the person handling the firing is a member of your spiking team. Do not attempt to recruit for your spiking team the person doing your firing u nless it is a trusted friend of many years' acquain tance, or a trusted relative. If possible have a trusted confidant handle the manufacture and firing of the pins at a location far from the forest where they wi!! be used. Have ready an air-tight reason for your intended use of the pins. Make up a convincing story, perhaps about how you plan to assemble them into an ab stract sculpture. Use your imagination, The possibilities are limitless. As a further means of obscu ring their intended use, fire the pins in twelve inch lengths. These can later be cut-down to suitable lengths using a diamond wire hand saw available for $1 5 to $25 through a jeweler or lapidary supply house (found in most large cities). It's a good idea to have a member of your team take a course in pottery to become familiar with the materials, techniques, and terminology. This can help in manufacturing a convincing cover story for the firing of your peculiar pins.