[Cob] Curious about the clay

[howard at earthandstraw.com]

You should read The Hand Sculpted House.  Clay in your subsoil is common, sometimes there is more or less so you need to determine that.  Putting some in a jar of water shaken and mixed very well then letting it sit for a time to settle out leaving clear water on top will help you determine how much clay you have.  The clay is the last thing to settle out, it is what colors the water, so the top layer of material in your jar is the clay, the sand will be on the bottom.  You need from 10 to 20% clay for cob so you may need to add clay or sand depending.  Make some test bricks.  You can get clay soil and sand mixed at an athletic supply company, ask for mound clay, it is used on baseball diamonds.  You can get it in bags or buy a truck load.  But first you should ask a local excavating/hauling company if they can get you some good clay rich sub-soil.


Howard Switzer, Architect
668 Hurricane Creek Road
Linden, TN 37096
931-589-6513
www.earthandstraw.com
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robert J Churchill 
  To: coblist at deatech.com 
  Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 12:19 AM
  Subject: [Cob] Curious about the clay


  The word "clay" is used repeatedly but really where exactly is all this clay coming from? I have no idea where I'm supposed to get all this clay. For me, it would be easier just to buy clay from a ceramics shop but I don't even know if that would work. I live in an urban area and it's not like we can just go out and dig up clay at a local quarry.
  _______________________________________________
  Coblist mailing list
  Coblist at deatech.com
  http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist