Dani & Rina Rosen on fri 1 jan 99
Hi,
Does anybody know of a substitute for Pine Lake Fire Clay? In Zakin's "A
Potter's guide..." he calls only for that fire clay, since it has 64%
Silica in it, and I can't find it.
TIA,
Rina in sunny Florida
--
Ron Roy on sat 2 jan 99
Pine Lake clay is no longer mined - I would use Hawthorn - it's lower in
silica but about the same amount of iron - it's a reliable clay - Axner
carries it.
It would be best to test the new body for shrinkage and absorption before
you start making pots.
If you send me the recipe and what cone you are firing to I will check out
the substitution for you.
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi,
>Does anybody know of a substitute for Pine Lake Fire Clay? In Zakin's "A
>Potter's guide..." he calls only for that fire clay, since it has 64%
>Silica in it, and I can't find it.
>TIA,
>
>Rina in sunny Florida
>
>
>--
Ron Roy
93 Pegasus Trail
Scarborough, Ontario
Canada M1G 3N8
Tel: 416-439-2621
Fax: 416-438-7849
Web page: http://digitalfire.com/education/people/ronroy.htm
Jonathan Kaplan on sun 3 jan 99
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi,
>Does anybody know of a substitute for Pine Lake Fire Clay? In Zakin's "A
>Potter's guide..." he calls only for that fire clay, since it has 64%
>Silica in it, and I can't find it.
>TIA,
>
>Rina in sunny Florida
This is certainly a blast from the past.
Pine Lake Fireclay has been off the market since the late 1980's when AFC
stopped contracting with coal companies to remove the overburden. Their
main pits were in Hillsville Pa., and the material was hauled to Canfield
Ohio for processing. There have been numerous attempts to restart, but it
was not financially advantageous. Years ago, I saw a sample of a new
fireclay that Cedar Heights was thinking about mining, and it had the same
color and plastic properties as Pine Lake. Steve at Cedar Heights was
enthusiastic about it but at this date, I suppose it never came to
fruition.
This was indeed a wonderful fireclay, but in the coarser mesh sizes there
was either coal or lime contamination. I wrote extensively about this in a
1982 Studio Potter issue entitled "Variations in Raw Materials" detailing
our experience with a 22 ton load of contaminated 30 mesh product.
The 50 mesh Pine Lake product was far superior. The clay fired a wonderful
burnt orange color and provided stoneware bodies with a fireclay that had
enough silica, in combination with additions of flint and feldspar as the
non plastics to provide highly vitreous cflay bodies at cone 9-10, as well
as a fine replacement for the coarser APGreen 28 mesh fireclay that we have
all grown to love and hate.
Alas this material is no more.
I would suggest that you use Hawthorne 50 mesh. The fired color is not as
warm, but will provide the qualities you expect from a fireclay.
For further information regarding clays, clay bodies, and clay materials
for the potter reference
digitalfire.com and go the the education link for clay bodies and read my
article titled" The Whining Stops Here." This piece concerns how to take
control of you clay bodies by asking the right questions.
Good Luck
Jonathan
Jonathan Kaplan, president
Ceramic Design Group LTD/Production Services
PO Box 775112
Steamboat Springs CO 80477
plant location
1280 13th Street Unit 13
Steamboat Springs CO 80487
(970) 879-9139 voice and fax
jonathan@csn.net
http://www.sni.net/ceramicdesign/
Ababi on mon 8 apr 02
Hi!
If any of European ( UK too) Potters know about, if the is, German Fire
clay (50#) plus name of brand, please write me My supplier buys mainly
from Germany it looks like the easiest way to "put my hands" on this
material
Ababi Sharon
Kibbutz Shoval- Israel
Glaze addict
ababisha@shoval.org.il
http://members4.clubphoto.com/ababi306910/
http://www.milkywayceramics.com/cgallery/asharon.htm
http://www.israelceramics.org/
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