[Sca-cooks] clay for ovens
Stefan li Rous
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Mon Oct 10 23:24:40 PDT 2005
Katherine asked:
> Stefan wrote:
> > 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.
>
> At what point did it want to crack? In my experience, these ovens
> usually develop cracks during the drying process, but are usually
> pretty stable once dry.
Again, much of my info is second-hand. However, I do remember looking
at their oven in the last few years, and that may have been the first
or the second generation one, and they were having problems with
cracks in the back upper dome area. As far as which stage the oven
was in, I'm not sure. The Gulf Wars site, unlike Pennsic, does allow
for permanent structures. So the oven might have been a week old or
it might have been a year old. Of course using an oven for a week and
then disappearing other than maybe a weekend visit or two, until the
next year might make you prey to other lack of maintenance problems.
I did note though in re-reading that story I pointed to in the
PENNSIC section of the Florilegium, that when they went looking for
the "good" clay it was a particular bed of clay and not just any clay
in that river bottom, which they were looking for.
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 ****
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