shelford on sat 20 dec 97
Hi Dave -
Re>1. Would it have melted eventually (it was at 2150 for about 2 hours)
>even though the temperature wouldn't increase? I keep reading that cones
>are temperature and time dependent.
They are. I'm surprised you couldn't get a cone 6 down at 2150 for that
length of time. My schedule for ^6 firing takes it (very slowly) to 2160,
where it soaks for only 10 minutes or so before the cone is down. If I
continue to soak it'll be up to ^8 in about an hour, or even less. I wonder
whether it's your temperature probe or mine that is inaccurate? Come to
think of it, probably both. I think you just test until you arrive at a
schedule that works in your kiln, and the numbers that apply are the numbers
that you repeat, but they probably don't mean much on any universal scale.
But probably a digital readout would help with repeat-ability, if you can
get it.
Re: the answers so far to the reclaiming question, I've noticed before that
everyone recommends drying the scraps and breaking them down and
reconstituting them. So now I have a question too - is the drying
especially necessary? I have always dumped the scraps and trimmings into
the 5 gal. bucket of throwing water for that type of clay, and when it gets
too thick and slurpy to throw with anymore, I set it aside, decant the top
water after a few days, smursh it around with my hands briefly to break up
any big bits, and then leave it until it's dried down to the stage for
plaster drying, and then wedge it. It means I'm doing smaller amounts at a
time, but it's quick. I suppose it probably takes longer than drying and
reconstituting, but it takes less of MY time. Does the drying improve the
quality?
- Veronica
___________________________________________
Veronica Shelford
e-mail: shelford@island.net
s-mail: P.O. Box 6-15
Thetis Island, BC V0R 2Y0
Tel: (250) 246-1509
TMartens on mon 22 dec 97
I think the theory goes that if you have leather hard lumps in your
reclaim they never get quite soft enough in the middle, whereas the
dry lumps, about walnut sized, will get wet through.
Must admit the theory has held true for me, so I dry my scraps
(unless they are really wet) have at them with a mallet and dump them
in water. I have not found that it makes any difference to the
properties of the clay. I do also have seperate buckets for different
clays.
Toni M
Clayphil on mon 22 dec 97
> is the drying
>especially necessary?
There are several methods for skinning most every cat. Dry clay scrapes
re-hydrate more evenly that wet/damp/leatherhard/or a mixture of clay scrapes.
If your method works well, you may not need to fix it. I use 5 gal. batches to
reclaim as well.
Phil in Chicago
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