DIY refractory paper clay
I excitedly prepared this DIY refractory paper clay post after an interesting contact from Rudy who had read my DIY refractory post. He kindly sent me the text of an article titled …mix WHAT with CLAY by Brian Gartside 1993. I contacted Brian and have included a link to his website and two paper clay articles below (these have since turned into porn sites so they have been deleted).
I thought that it was so interesting that I would record it in a post so that other tinkerers would know about it.
In my title, I have inserted the word ‘ceramic’, so as to distinguish from hobby paperclay material that is not fired, ceramics or refractory material.
As I explore the simplicity and ease of working on this cheap material I can see the vast potential of it as a technical refractory material rather than as an art material (as in Brian’s case).
It is also a very interesting read if you are into DIY refractory paper clay! Alternatively, if you are a beginner with ceramics or refractories, this technique, which uses toilet tissue (the Covid 19 stockpile) with clay, sounds like it is so tolerant that it would make a good starting point. You will certainly be prepared if it all turns to shit.
To quote Brian’s words regarding paperclay “It seems that nearly all rules of clay-making can be broken…..offers endless possibilities.”
A little ode to Brian:
Are you ready for all clay rules to be broken,
For a ‘kiwi-master-clay-wizard’ has spoken,
Bonding thick, moist, dry, solid or hollow, rules don’t follow,
All is smashed except for your ceramic precious bespoken.
Brian focuses mainly on the artistic use of paper clay. Whereas, I see that its potential as a very useful, flexible and cheap medium for practical DIY making of more functional objects. He describes how it can easily and quickly be formed as solid or hollow shapes, with thick and thin sections. These can also be easily joined together so that they will remain together after firing. Such objects should be highly compatible with my tinkering with things that are ‘born in fire to survive in fire’.
Such construction ease and simplicity is in sharp contrast with all the planning, mold forming and tedious tamping in my refractory forming process that is described in many of my DIY refractory.
My first test with DIY refractory paper clay
For some time I did not have a quality source of clay to make my first test item, so I impatiently resorted to mixing toilet paper mash with a creamy textured slurry finely sifted crab hole soil as described in DIY refractory.
This hasty experiment started well and the soft mixture was very easy to work with and dried quickly without any sign of cracking. I even took a photo of the glowing test disk in the charcoal fire in anticipation of posting on its success. Alas, when I griped the bespoken with the fire tongs it fell into pieces and dust that was not dissimilar to the original crab hole soil!
From this failure, I concluded that my soil has little or no clay in it. I should have known this as this is what my soil test indicated when, many years ago, I was preparing to build a mud-brick home.
Nevertheless, the test demonstrated that the tiny trace of sodium silicate as described in the DIY refractory post must have been the crucial agent that made the crab hole soil turn into a ‘stone’ so tough and hard that I sharpen knives on it.
A little ode to crab hole soil and dunny paper;
So ignorant, they said he did not know shitfromclay,
With dunny paper and soil went out to play,
Combining soil from crabholes with paper for assholes,
Would he make flame resistant paper clay?
No was the answer! However, it was a valuable lesson about my magic crab hole soil and the wonder of the refractory binding of it with sodium silicate.
On to real DIY refractory paper clay
Having procured some quality terracotta clay I was determined to redeem myself.
Being a bit of a tight-arse I made this tiny ceramic test piece with only 19g of moist clay and 19g of toilet paper mash that no longer drained any more water. The clay was first mixed with water to make a creamy texture before blending in the paper mash. The mix was easy to work with and made a lovely bespoken item that easily survived its birth in a hot charcoal bed. It weighed only 12 g after being fired.
The ease of ceramic paper clay work would make it excellent for a creative school project or a fun project for kids and parents during school holidays. Participation in the transition during the birth of their bespoken item within a campfire should be great fun and the best form of education.
It’s a very refined Baldosa
As I understand Brian’s paper clay better, I think I am correct in thinking that DIY refractory paper clay as being a very special and very refined form of Baldosa (e.g. cow shit and clay)
Baldosa is simply made from suitable clays mixed with all sorts of organic fibre or particles, usually, waste materials before forming and firing. In a variety of forms, it is and has been, innovatively used around the world by poor people with limited resources. It is cheap and plentiful and has wonderful resistance to fire and a capacity to withstand high-temperature thermal cycling.
Consequently, I expected my hot fired DIY refractory paper clay, should survive the thermal shock of being cooled with water without cracking. “As the wise man said, Arrrrrrr….that’s alright in practice, bbbb…. but what about theory?”
I somewhat reluctantly, did the test on my first invaluable (no value at all) ceramic paper clay bespoke item.
Yes, it survived the dunking test. “I was excited and much relieved as no one likes to see their dreams and hope shattered. I will not include a photo as it is just the same as before the test.”
Since making this post I have found a Forum where they suggest the use of paper clay as a refractory hot face lining. I could not access the article, but the discussion suggests that my ideas about paper clay as a potential refractory (like baldosa) are correct.
My last little rant about DIY refractory paper clay
After firing my light DIY refractory paper clay has a soft surface that may not withstand abuse when carelessly adding fuel sticks to a stove made from it. However, I envisage that a simple hot-face render such as a sodium silicate plus garnet or aluminium oxide refractory could easily be applied to the inner surface of such a stove to make it very resistant to abrasion. Similarly, the outside of the stove burner could have extra ultralight paper clay added for extra insulation. This soft outer layer could also be protected by a thin metal skin that could be held in place with a silicate refractory foam as described in the above link.
I don’t think I need to say much more other than that this technique sounds like a very interesting addition to my list of refractory tricks and to thank Rudy and the original author Brian for sharing their gift with us.
“Brian’s articles are just such a fascinating read and should fire up artists, teachers, parents, kids and pyromaniacs with all sorts of interesting projects. It is just too good to get lost in time.”
Also, as you can imagine, this pyrotinkermaniac can’t wait to give it a try with a lot more inventions.
Here is a little Instagram video of the Paper clay ceramic being born in fire. It looks like it will make a great stove making material. It can be very light and quite strong, so it should be a lot of fun.
Firing paper clay
You probably do not have a kiln to fire your precious creation so this article, Fire without a kiln, may be of some help. They emphasise the importance of thorough drying below 100C as a crucial part of the preparation to prevent cracking during firing.
Tim
Paper clay source material
I found the archived PDF of the mix what with clay article but these were less readable, but importantly should not get lost with the progress of time or hijacked as a pornsite .
Ohhh…..and a little bit more fun about the hoarding of dunny paper by silly Aussies as we shaped up to the Coronavirus pandemic. This ceramic paper clay trick seems to work best with toilet tissue. So there should be plenty of new stuff so you don’t need to use second-hand paper.
That virus is coming quickly they say,
We’ll get a years dunny paper in just one day,
F*** the rest cause we are the best!
Make ceramic with excess paper and clay.
Lastly, this Covid19 ode was my reaction to protest by some religious leaders about using cell lines grown from an aborted fetus to develop a Covid19 vaccine for mankind to possibly save millions of lives.
Oh…no…no… no…. vaccine from cell lines acquired,
Grown for years from electively aborted fetus expired,
Such loud pompous priestly piety to all our society,
Years of silence for surviving Rogered boys from the choir.
More on paper clay
Well, I have had an enquiry about progress with my paper clay projects and had to admit that with the best of intentions, I have made very little. The scarcity of local clay that is good quality and the Covid19 lockdowns have prevented me from getting the potting clay shop to get cheap bulk clay. I also have had many other projects to happily distract me. “I bet you know how it goes.”
However, I have made some very low-density experimental paper clay rings with a little of my tiny and expensive 500g block of potting clay. They are miniature versions of rings that might be used to build a heat riser for a stove where insulation, chemical stability, high-temperature resistance and thermal shock resistance would be required. The little rings are rather rough and I have deliberately scored some surfaces before firing to see if this makes a better bonding surface. The rings dried quickly and I fired them in charcoal that I estimate reached 700-800C or maybe more. When fired, the rings had that typical crisp, tinkly meringue feel and were light but quite strong.
On a larger scale, such rings could be bonded together with more paper clay and be put inside a metal container and then packed in a simple and cheap insulating fill of perlite or vermiculite bonded with sodium silicate.
I have started my first ceramic paper clay blower stove and a corresponding post on the project.
Tim
I have an idea on how to cheaply build kilns. A little long but I think some of the things that interest me, interest you, so hopefully I will not be imposing. And your site is SUPER interesting to me.
I read a book, long ago, called “Ceramic Houses and Earth Architecture: How to Build Your Own” by Nader Khalili. This really lit my neurons and I thought about this a lot over the years. If you read the book he really has no good way to do his, (Though the book is a masterpiece and well worth reading). He covered adobe houses with straw, clay, dung, and then fires the inside. This of course does not work because the outside does not reach high enough temperature, and to insulate it enough to do so would likely ruin the benefit of low cost.
One day I was looking in a cardboard box full of bottles, and it finally came to me a way to do this. So simple, so very simple. You’ve seen cardboard dividers to keep the bottles from breaking in a box. One straight piece(slat) with slits on top and another 90 degrees with slits on bottom to make a checked cardboard cushion, holding the bottles. And that’s the answer. You fire long flat slats just like the cut cardboard with slots. They would have alternating slots, so they would stack as high as you wanted. Inside the grid of fired ceramic slats you add cob, a mixture of clay, sand and straw (or waste shredded plastic might be better). Cob houses exist that are over 500 years old but have to be continually repaired. With the ceramic slats holding them in place this would cease to be a problem. The slats on the outer and inner surfaces could be covered with ceramic tiles hanging from slots in the ends of the slats. Now you have a forever house. The roof could be made out of the same sort of slats but with a different arrangement and a steel, or rope reinforcement at the top. (Tension support) Cover the roof with ceramic tiles and you’re done. Think medieval churches with ceramic instead of stone. And conveniently, all of these are made of flat materials or shapes that could be nested, that could be packed in a kiln.
Now you could do the same to make kilns. Instead of spending a lot on fire brick, fire slats as you have done, with slots. Make the kiln with these slats, then fill the slat spaces closest to the interior with sand, the next layer with a lightweight clay paper or clay perlite mix for insulation and maybe an outer with clay sand mix. I think you could load up all this stuff and do a slow firing and then a shorter hot firing and, fire “whatever you choose” inside, while you are firing the kiln itself to harden it.
This also has the advantage of incrementalism. You start with open firing slats with slots, use those to build those to a small kiln to fire larger slats with slots to build ever larger kilns whenever you get the itch.
Hi Sam, I don’t quite follow your ideas here, but I have seen clay firing done in a temporary ‘kiln’ made of laminates of newspaper that have been coated with clay slip. The laminates are built up over the the clay items and fuel. The paperclay shell is broken apart to retrieve the fired items. Tim
Interesting that toilet paper works best. I read, somewhere, that some, I think better, toilet paper has clay in it. I can’t remember what for, maybe to be smoother. Could this coating of fine clay be why it works better?
Which leads to the idea that if you have a fine very rich clay mixture, typically called “slip”, you could take newspaper, and use a paint mixer with a big drill, shear the newspaper to a fine consistency, mix in some of this fine clay, then mix with clay or whatever as you would with toilet paper and get the same results.
Hi Sam, I don’t think the clay content of the toilet paper would contribute significantly to the overall clay content of the mix. The clay that I mix in with the paper could be called ‘slip’. Tim
Hi Tim,
Was wondering if you were aware that the two links in this article under the section, “PAPER CLAY SOURCE MATERIAL”, one labeled, “Gartsite website” and the other, “MixWhatWithClay?” both now link to porn sites?
Needless to say mine eyes were a little surprised when I clicked on the links. I found it mildly amusing, but some other folks might find it offensive or the like, hence why I’m letting you know about it.
Hi Justin, Thanks for your warning. I don’t understand how this has happened. I will investigate. Tim
Tim, Thank you for the hints. I will try the paper clay recipe first. Your feedback is excellent and well appreciated. I will let you know how it turns out.
Thanks Darren, It is good to get your feedback too, as I am not sure that others understand all my gobbldegoop. I look forward to hearing how it goes.
Tim
Tim, Thank you for the hints. I will try the paper clay recipe first. Your feedback is excellent and well appreciated. I will let you know how it turns out.
Hi Tim,
Thank you for your suggestion on using paper clay as a test for a 20x12x1/2″ woodstove baffle. My question is it looks like I have to fire the kiln. Since I do not have a kiln, should I stick to with using the sodium silicate/perlite/sand recipe?
Hi Darren, I don’t think you need to use a kiln in either case. If the paperclay board is dried well it will be ready to go into your fireplace. Just run a gentle fire for a start (incase it has moisture in it) and the firing will be completed as you use the fire normally. Similarly, the silicate board could be treated the same way. However, it may cause intumescence (puffing). If I understand your situation correctly a little intumescence will improve the insulation and better protect the stove metal from the heat of the fire. The voids left behind in the paper clay when the toilet paper burns away will provide similar insulation. I would try the paperclay first as it is just so quick and easy to work with (Just like putty, with no nasty effect on your skin). I think you said you had plenty of clay and if you hoarded Dunny paper for the Pandemic, you will probably have plenty of that too! Are you in a part of the world where toilet paper was hoarded?
I hope my technical comments make sense even if the rest of the crap does not.
Tim