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If your reclaim is short and non-plastic make it better than new by mixing in some 50:50 ball clay:bentonite. As little as 4 parts per 100 is often sufficient. Thoroughly shaking the powders together in a plastic bag separates the super-tiny bentonite ones between those of the also very fine ball clay. Of course it is best to mix the 50:50 powder with the reclaim in dry form but failing that It is possible to slurry up the two-part-mix (pure bentonite cannot be mixed with water). There are issues however. If the bentonite is high in soluble salts the slurry can leave a scum on your plaster batt (but that's easy to remedy using a sandscreen). The 50:50 blend fires to a tan-buff stoneware at cone 6 so a small addition won't change the fired appearance of most stoneware bodies. Blender mixing will demand much more water so propeller mixing is sufficient if the clay:water mix is allowed to soak first.
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Recylcing Scrap Clay
Guidelines for collecting, reprocessing, testing and adjusting scrap recycle clay in a pottery or ceramics studio or production facility. |
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