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URL: Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site
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A refractory brick manufacturer, cradled in the Dirt Hills of Southern Saskatchewan, for 75 years (from 1914-1989).
Related Information
These were just lumps - but I gave them meaning
This clay is exceptional in multiple ways, it clay is from Flintoft, Saskatchewan. It holds together in lumps (center picture) but when broken its sandy nature becomes clearly visible. Other sandy clays in the area are similar but when water is added this one is different: It becomes plastic, plastic enough to form well (notice the texture of the plastic material in the closeup photo on the upper left). And it dries quickly with low shrinkage (the drying test disk upper right shows perfect performance). This combination of properties is what brick makers look for. No wonder that a clay similar to this nearby was used at the Claybank brick plant for 75 years.
I ran a series of physical tests to characterize this material (data shown lower left), that brought to light other good properties:
-It is super refractory, a fireclay. The SHAB test bars (lower right from cone 10R and 10 down to 6 oxidation) correspond to the SHAB test results in the chart. Even at cone 10 this has an amazing 19% porosity. With almost no shrinkage.
-The top bar is reduction-fired yet barely darker than the one below it at the same temperature in oxidation. This indicates low iron content.
-This is low soluble salts. Even though they concentrate on the outer edge of the DFAC test disk (upper right), that part fires only slightly darker at cone 10R (inset).
-Centre-bottom: G1947U clear glaze on it fired at cone 10R. It is neither crazing or shivering. This is unusual.
All of this information is preserved in our Insight-live account. Not shown are all the picture-specific and general notes I took. I compared this with about 10 other clays, doing the same for all of them, preserving a treasure trove of data that enables comparing all of them side-by-side.
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