Clay

Quaternary clay in Estonia

Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material. Clay is able to be worked into a desired shape when wet, and becomes hard and brittle when dried or fired, retaining its previous shape.

Materials needed

Clay is a naturally occurring material

Crafting instructions

Clay can be found underground, sometimes quite close to the surface. It is more common near riverbanks. Quality of clay varies by location. Before use, clay should be washed of impurities like sand, stones, or silt.

Dirts that are high in clay but contain larger particles as well may be separated using a sedimentation pit. Create two pits, one of higher elevation. Put the raw dirt into the higher pit and wash it with water to suspend the clay particles, allowing the heavier sediment to sink to the bottom. Create a channel allowing the clay-rich water to flow into the lower pit, where it will settle out, similar to a river delta. Finer particles will be found further from the input channel. Once most water is gone, a thick slurry can be collected.

Processing

Raw clay is seldom ready to use. The addition of grog (previously fired clay dust) can increase strength and decrease shrinkage. The addition of starch can increase plasticity. To add starch, boil starch rich foods such as rice and potatoes to extract the starch. The water can then be added to dry clay to create a pottery medium. The addition of starch will create odors as the pottery dries due to decomposition.

Uses

Ceramics

Clay can be shaped when wet and then fired to create clay ceramics, including bricks which can be used for construction, and pottery which includes clay vessels, dishware, pipes, and other wares.

Construction

In addition to clay bricks, clay can be used directly in buildings, such as in the daub used in wattle and daub construction, or in the walls of a Bloomery Furnace.

Projectiles

See also: Sling and Slingshot

Clay is an option as projectiles for ranged weapons, including the sling and the slingshot.

Writing

Clay tablets are the earliest known medium for writing, used in Sumeria and Greece as early as 3000 BCE. Symbols can be inscribed into wet clay using a stylus, and the clay can either be remolded to record a new set of symbols or fired to make the record more permanent.

Dependencies

• Clay
  • Brick
  • Ceramic
  • Sling
  • Slingshot

See also

• Brick
• Mud
• Sand
• Soils

External links

• Fired Clay Bricks - Primitive Technology, 26 April 2019, YouTube

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Clay, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).