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How to find local clay banks?



 
 
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  #11  
Old September 28th 04, 04:26 AM
CNB
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South Louisiana, USA. How about you? There is so much clay here it's
ridiculous. You can come dig some out of my yard. LOL. I never tried
collecting any before. The lady I bought my kiln from quite a while back
showed me an ashtray her husband made from clay dug out of his back yard
right here in Terrebonne Parish. It was a gorgeous, very deep red color. I
remembered that when I got that load dumped in my yard so I decided to try
it out.

If you live near a river or stream I would think that you could get some
clay. I read in a book that I have, that you could try digging a bit away
from the flowing water. There could be clay there from days gone by when the
river used to flow there. Flowing water never stays in the same location.
The book also says to look for construction sites. Of course get permission
first but I'm sure there are lots of people clearing land that wouldn't mind
that some clay was hauled away. My husband knows where there are some clay
slides in Mississippi. He used to go there when he was a kid and wants to
bring me there to dig some of that clay out. We will do that some day. Good
luck.
Crystal


"Gary Dickson" wrote in message
...
|
| Wow! Where do you live and who do I call?! I have been looking for clay
for
| a couple of months now -- just in my spare time so I'm sure the answer is
| out there. But, I have not found a good clay for what I want to do. I
| learned of a place where they use to mine and process clay for bricks and
| pipes 30-100 years ago -- this past weekend I went and found several
| different types of clay all within a few miles. They seem promising -- but
| we'll see. I started processing two samples today!
|
| On 9/24/04 2:58 PM, in article
| , "CNB"
| wrote:
|
| You can look in the yellow pages under top soil. Find the one that is
the
| crook that delivers clay instead of good sandy garden soil and you could
| have a whole 15 yard truckload dumped in your garden. Ask me, I know
from
| experience. Just a few days ago that very thing happened to me. Only
problem
| is I wanted sandy garden soil not clay. Hmmmm. Now was I ripped off or
is
| this a gift from god. Being a potter I'm going to try it out. I grabbed
a
| hunk of it and wedged it. It passed the bending test right off the bat.
I
| could have clay for life.
|


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  #12  
Old September 28th 04, 04:31 AM
CNB
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Posts: n/a
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I see you got your answer on this. I wouldn't call you ignorant. Just
learning.
We are all learning everyday for the rest of our lives if we are lucky.
)
Crystal



"alistair" wrote in message
om...
| Crystal,
|
| Call me ignorant, but what is the bending test?
|
| all the best,
|
| Alistair.
|
| "CNB" wrote in message
...
| You can look in the yellow pages under top soil. Find the one that is
the
| crook that delivers clay instead of good sandy garden soil and you could
| have a whole 15 yard truckload dumped in your garden. Ask me, I know
from
| experience. Just a few days ago that very thing happened to me. Only
problem
| is I wanted sandy garden soil not clay. Hmmmm. Now was I ripped off or
is
| this a gift from god. Being a potter I'm going to try it out. I grabbed
a
| hunk of it and wedged it. It passed the bending test right off the bat.
I
| could have clay for life.
|
| Crystal
|
|
| "David Smith" wrote in message
| ...
| | Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find local clay banks?
How
| | to test the clay found ? Any suggestions? Comments?
| |
| | Thank You,
| |
| | David Smith


  #13  
Old September 28th 04, 01:33 PM
Bob Masta
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Posts: n/a
Default

"David Smith" wrote in message
...
| Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find local clay banks? How
| to test the clay found ? Any suggestions? Comments?
|
| Thank You,
|
| David Smith


Check out anywhere you see a new home or office building basement
being excavated. You get to see a nice clean cut, down to probably
deeper than you would care to excavate yourself. Should show up
any prominent clay veins. But note that clay is not like a regular
geological rock stratum that shows up over borad regions; tends to
be pretty localized. So if you find some in a building excavation,
you might just want to ask the excavator for some. Maybe
work out a deal for him to keep his eye out on the next house in
the subdivision, etc.

As far as testing, besides the bending test already mentioned,
the one you need to be next-most concerned with is the presence
of lime bits. Unfortunately, the literature is not very clear on
this. The usual advice is to put some in acid and watch for bubbles.
But the lime is only going to be a problem if it is in chunks bigger
than 30 mesh or so, whereas much finer lime will still cause bubbles.
So I think the trick is to watch for big streams of bubbles coming
from localized spots, indicating a big chunk.

In my own case, I ended up drying, crumbling, and sieving the clay
through a window screen to get rid of the biggest chunks and stones.
That wasn't fine enough to stop lime pops, so after making it into
slip I put it through an 80 mesh sieve, which did the trick. I've
heard that 30 mesh is all that's needed.

Hope this helps!





Bob Masta
dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
  #14  
Old September 28th 04, 05:31 PM
Gary Dickson
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Posts: n/a
Default

Seattle area. There is clay all around but most that I have found does not
pass the bend test very well and does not hold it's shape very well (it
sags). Anyhow, I am also very new to all of this. I participated in a 10 day
workshop back in June with Juan Quezada and now I am obsessed with the whole
thing. Being so new I'm sure that eventually I will find some clay that will
work -- or I will figure out how to make the clay that I've found usable.


On 9/27/04 8:26 PM, in article
, "CNB"
wrote:

How about you?


 




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