|
Clay
Bill Chalmers CLAY recipe and Tandoori Oven
Ideal for:
• Lining and repairing slow combustion wood heaters
• Lining and repairing slow combustion stoves
• Constructing Tandoori ovens
I used high kaolin clay straight from the ground. It is
used at the local brickworks (in Nowra) to make `Nowra
Commons', a red brick still fired with sawdust from the
timber mills!
I soaked the clay, sieved it wet to remove stones,
roots, etc. I blunged it with some Na2SiO4 to reduce
water content to get a slip. During blunging (using an
old paint mixer on a 3/4 horsepower electric motor) I
threw in medium-coarse sand. The magic ingredient, I
believe, is kiln fibre. I had lots of scraps from the
kiln I built. I threw them in and blunged the lot: clay
slip, sand, kaolin, fibre. I have no idea of the
proportions but there was much more clay than anything
else.
The slip can be dried on plaster batts or by tying the
ankles of a pair of strong op-shop trousers and filling
the legs after suspending the duds. Trousers need strong
support as they hold a huge amount of slip.
When drained, slap the wet but malleable mix onto
whatever gaps need filling in the heater/stove firebox.
I fired it while still wet and it didn't even
crack. It is quite soft but doesn't seem to fret away or
crack. Our stove and wood heater have survived two
winter seasons with no further clay additions.
Tandoori Oven
1. Make a cone-shaped frame of several layers of chicken
wire
2. Push the clay mix through, smoothing as you go; I
used oxide in the last slather of clay, for aesthetics
3. I have now enclosed the oven in a blanket of kaowool
wrapped with copper wire and painted with Bondcrete and
Ferris oxide (for colour only); it could also be
enclosed in a box full of vermiculite
4. Air inlet: 50 mm pipe with a sliding adjustable plate
The oven has no top or bottom - mine sits on the earth
on a bed of sand. A fire is lit in the cone (oven). Food
is placed on 5 mm skewers. I made mine from 5 or 6 mm
mild steel rod. They need to be this thick as
a great deal of heat is transferred up through the
interior of the food.
Wonder Clay!
Make your own paper clay quickly using "Wondersoft" or
any other cheap, plain toilet paper as your paper
source. It is designed to dissolve and warm water makes
it disintegrate even more quickly (remember to remove
the core - it slides out readily). Scoop the pulp from
your bucket with a kitchen sieve, squeeze lightly and
add in - 1/3 proportions to your heavy slip. Ideal for
paper-clay slabs.
Clay Manicure
Ideal cutting and trimming tool for hand building: A
"ladies" metal nail file (crushed industrial diamond
file surface), available from chemists and supermarkets,
makes an excellent tool for trimming, shaving and
cutting clay. The fine, roughened surface enables the
nail file to glide through wet clay without the grabbing
or "sucking on" that sometimes occurs with smooth knives
and blades. The file can be easily bent at an angle to
facilitate neat perpendicular cuts using a straightedge
for tiles etc.
Please e-mail them to
vipoo@vipoo.com
|
