[Sca-cooks] clay for ovens

[Stefan li Rous]

Meva matbúðarkona volunteered:
> Count me in for such a workshop.  I live south of Seattle in Olympia,
> WA. I could also volunteer my backyard for building a bake oven.
> We have thespace and a lot of rocks and clay (in some parts it is
> about 12 inches to a thick grey clay!)

Have you actually tried to use this grey clay? I don't know the  
details but apparently not all clay is fine for making ovens. The  
clay at Pennsic seems to be fine as a number of folks have made them  
there, as well as things like smelters. The following is an  
interesting story about gathering clay at Pennsic.
P-tale-MWIFO-art  (23K)  8/26/96    Making Wrought Iron from Ore at  
Pennsic 24.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PENNSIC/P-tale-MWIFO-art.html

However, when the Early Period Encampment tried to make an oven with  
the local clay at Gulf Wars, it wanted to crack. I don't know if they  
brought in more clay from the outside the next year or whether they  
added something to the clay to make it hold together better.

> (we have a brick and stone one mass oven in the works - it's on the 3
> year plan.....)

So, why brick *and* stone? How big do you plan for it to be? Are you  
going to use mortar or clay/mud?

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****