[Sca-cooks] clay for ovens

[Stefan li Rous]

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 ****