[Stoves] Baldosa Tile Making

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear George

Thanks for that. I have seen the material on the site mostly as it
accumulated. I once read a mix for it but I don't know where it was so I
thought the best place for such info is right here!

I was showing two people from other projects the results of our XRF and
dilation tests. It is interesting stuff.

What is important is to wash the fine sand out of the clay. That is clear.

People frequently add sand to clay to make it stiff or shrink less and so
on. In fact they are creating a higher quartz mix in most cases. More quartz
means more likely to fracture if the temperature passes 570 C.

Taking Kaolinite and washing the sand out reduces its quartz even more. I am
suspicious that there is an element of washing the clay for a Baldosa. Then
it needs porosity which can be chopped fine grass, or as I heard, horse
dung.  As there were no horses until not that long ago, it must have been
something else traditionally.

I'll bet there are several mixes.

Regards
Crispin