• Materials for Ceramics

EP Kaolin

Alternate Names: EPK, Edgar Plastic Kaolin, EPK Kaolin

Description: Plastic White Firing Kaolin

Notes

lf you have issues getting this there are alternatives. Grolleg kaolin is as good or better for suspending glazes (it has the same sticky character as EPK). New Zealand kaolin also works very well. For clay bodies #6 Tile kaolin is far more plastic than EPK (although it does not fire as white). New Zealand kaolin fires much whiter but is not quite as plastic, just add 1-2% bentonite to tune the plasticity of the body. Grolleg works similarly to NZK.

A secondary water-washed kaolin mined in Florida, USA. EPK, when wet, is sticky and thixotropic, for these reasons it is considered by many to be the best North American kaolin for use in suspending ceramic glazes. 15-20% will normally make the glaze gel slightly, thus when a piece is immersed in the slurry and removed it drips very little and the wet glaze layer stays in place for the time it takes to dewater. And it dries relatively hard. Since EPK is very close to theoretical kaolin chemistry, it will substitute for any other such kaolins (e.g. Pioneer).

EPK is whiter burning than other American kaolins, this is due to its relatively low iron content, but more importantly the low level of TiO2: 0.4 TiO2. While this is high compared to Grolleg and Super Standard Porcelain kaolins (about 0.05%), but other common American kaolins have multiple times more TiO2 than EPK!

EPK has excellent casting properties. But it is not plastic enough for throwing bodies, it must be augmented by a more plastic kaolin (like 6Tile) or by a plasticizer like bentonite, smectite or hectorite. Or, if whiteness can be sacrificed, by a ball clay.

This material is mined and processed in Edgar Florida. It is extracted hydraulically (a high-pressure stream of water is used to wash the clay/sand mix from the bank into a small lake). The slurry is pumped and transported to vibrating screens that separate out the sand and grade it into sizes. The clay that passes the screens is pumped into a pond and settled with the aid of a flocculant. The slurry is then dried and the flocculant neutralized. The main product at the mine is high quality white sand, the clay is a byproduct. The company is confident that there are reserves for the next hundred years.

Related Information

A 70:30 mix of EPK:Nepheline Syenite has gone to mush

This was plastic and moldable two days ago, now it is incredibly sticky. It is being compared with 5 other kaolin:nepheline mixes, none of them have reacted in this way.

EPK fired bar (top) vs Grolleg at cone 10R. Why shrinking more?

From these (SHAB test bars) EP kaolin appears to have a much higher fired shrinkage. But half of that happened during drying. Still, EPK shrinks 4% more during firing. Yet Grolleg produces more vitrified porcelains. The EPK bar also appears be whiter. Yet in a porcelain body Grolleg fires much whiter. That higher drying shrinkage proves that EPK is much more plastic, right? Not really. Throwing porcelains containing either require plasticity augmentation using similar percentages of bentonite. What do we learn? To compare materials like this we need to see them "playing on the team", in a recipe working with other materials. Don't rely on material data sheets, do the testing.

Thrown pieces made from pure Grolleg and EP Kaolin

These have just been thrown on the wheel, which we find to be a foolproof method of comparing the plasticity of two clays. They were slurried and dewatered to about the same water content and the same amount was thrown on a potters wheel to compare the plasticity. While the Grolleg is stickier and dewaters a little slower, it is not nearly as plastic as EPK (which itself is not that plastic either). Curiously, New Zealand Halloysite is quite a bit less plastic than the Grolleg but it responds to plasticity augmentation (in porcelain recipes) just as well as Grolleg (similar amounts of bentonite producing similar plasticities). And, bodies containing EPK need about the same amount of bentonite to produce plasticity suitable for throwing large forms. So, the plasticity a porcelain appears to have by itself is not completely indicative of what it will contribute to a body.

Two kaolins, one cracks on bisque, the other does not

Both of these are mixed 70:30 kaolin:feldspar. Left is a fine particled kaolin, #6 Tile. Right a coarser particled, less plastic material, EPK. During forming, the larger particles line up concentric to the center better. This causes the body to shrink more along radius lines than along tangent, producing these cracks. Many of these were made and they all cracking like this.

Two batches of EPK tested quite differently in 2018

The EP kaolin has been mixed 70:30 with nepheline syenite. This creates a body that matures below cone 6. And it enables comparing the degree to which the two kaolins influence vitrification (and their contribution to fired color in a vitreous body). The darker one is more plastic, has higher drying shrinkage more soluble salts. These dry test bars were fired at cone 4-8 and had similar fired shrinkages and porosities. However the one on the right fired whiter at all temperatures. These differences would impact the plasticity and drying shrinkage of bodies containing a significant percentage of the material. They would also influence the ability of this kaolin to suspend slurries.

#6 Tile Kaolin 2021 vs EP Kaolin 2020

These test bars are fired at cone 10 reduction (top) and 10, 9 and 8 oxidation (downward). Consider a reason why one should reconcile actual physical working properties with measured test data. These two kaolins had almost the same drying shrinkages in SHAB this test, which suggests the same plasticity. And the EPK fires whiter. So it should make a better plastic porcelain, right? Not so. In reality #6 Tile is far, far more plastic. Something else to note: EPK will require more feldspar since it fires less vitreous. And, although both have extremely high firing shrinkages, the EPK is much higher. The charts for each show data for five separate test bars prepared, they show the drying shrinkage, firing shrinkage and porosity (water absorption).

Links

Data

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