How to find local clay banks?

also, ask the local kids!

when i was around 7 to 14 years old we all knew various clay sites in the woods and by the streams. at the time we didn't know much about clay in gerneral. we just would play in the woods all day. meanwhile we sure knew that woods pretty well!

the area was langhorne pennsylvania; just north of philadelphia. that region has/had a lot of clay. the whole area from ohio thru new jersey is a good clay site.

see ya

steve

steve graber

I have recently been looking for clay deposits here in western Washington state and have found quite a few. They are all over the place but it seems that MOST of them are within 50 yards of a river. Is this coincidence? Or I suppose it could simply be because there are so many rivers and streams up here. Whatever the reason it seems to help me find them.

Gary: A small lesson in geology would be helpful, perhaps. You can consult any of the known books, such as Rhodes "Clay and Glazes for the Potter", or the Hamer and Hamer Dictionary, but it all boils down to this: Clay is formed from sediments washed (or carried in some cases by glaciers) from deeper deposits by the action of water (tides sometimes too, can unearth clay).

The action of the water allows a filtering of the sediment, so all like-sized particles settle in about the same area (resulting in clay). Sometimes this occurs in a slower bank (bend) area of a river, sometimes on a stream bed, sometimes in a pond situation where the water evaporates. It also explains why you often find it in layers, with sand either above or below.

Finding clay close to water is not unusual. It's actually the first place you should look . Remember that not only the action of water, but the action of water over time plays an important role here. You probably won't find it "right" on the bank (though you might if the stream or river runs through a clay deposit). Usually, it is located "nearby", a result of a "recent" settling, where the river or stream then changed it's course, allowing the clay deposit to remain in place, and undisturbed. Recent in geologic terms, anyway.

Hope that helps, and happy hunting,

Find a Bureau of Land management office. They usually will sell maps that can point you in the right direction. Just tell them what you're looking for.

Regards, June

You can look in the yellow pages under top soil. Find the one that is the crook that delivers clay instead of good sandy garden soil and you could have a whole 15 yard truckload dumped in your garden. Ask me, I know from experience. Just a few days ago that very thing happened to me. Only problem is I wanted sandy garden soil not clay. Hmmmm. Now was I ripped off or is this a gift from god. Being a potter I'm going to try it out. I grabbed a hunk of it and wedged it. It passed the bending test right off the bat. I could have clay for life.

Crystal

Crystal,

Call me ignorant, but what is the bending test?

all the best,

Alistair.

roll a coil, and bend it in half. if it's nice and plastic it'll bend without getting cracky at the bend joint.

steve

steve graber

South Louisiana, USA. How about you? There is so much clay here it's ridiculous. You can come dig some out of my yard. LOL. I never tried collecting any before. The lady I bought my kiln from quite a while back showed me an ashtray her husband made from clay dug out of his back yard right here in Terrebonne Parish. It was a gorgeous, very deep red color. I remembered that when I got that load dumped in my yard so I decided to try it out.

If you live near a river or stream I would think that you could get some clay. I read in a book that I have, that you could try digging a bit away from the flowing water. There could be clay there from days gone by when the river used to flow there. Flowing water never stays in the same location. The book also says to look for construction sites. Of course get permission first but I'm sure there are lots of people clearing land that wouldn't mind that some clay was hauled away. My husband knows where there are some clay slides in Mississippi. He used to go there when he was a kid and wants to bring me there to dig some of that clay out. We will do that some day. Good luck. Crystal

I see you got your answer on this. I wouldn't call you ignorant. Just learning. We are all learning everyday for the rest of our lives if we are lucky. :o) Crystal

| > Crystal | >

| >

Check out anywhere you see a new home or office building basement being excavated. You get to see a nice clean cut, down to probably deeper than you would care to excavate yourself. Should show up any prominent clay veins. But note that clay is not like a regular geological rock stratum that shows up over borad regions; tends to be pretty localized. So if you find some in a building excavation, you might just want to ask the excavator for some. Maybe work out a deal for him to keep his eye out on the next house in the subdivision, etc.

As far as testing, besides the bending test already mentioned, the one you need to be next-most concerned with is the presence of lime bits. Unfortunately, the literature is not very clear on this. The usual advice is to put some in acid and watch for bubbles. But the lime is only going to be a problem if it is in chunks bigger than 30 mesh or so, whereas much finer lime will still cause bubbles. So I think the trick is to watch for big streams of bubbles coming from localized spots, indicating a big chunk.

In my own case, I ended up drying, crumbling, and sieving the clay through a window screen to get rid of the biggest chunks and stones. That wasn't fine enough to stop lime pops, so after making it into slip I put it through an 80 mesh sieve, which did the trick. I've heard that 30 mesh is all that's needed.

Hope this helps!

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

Seattle area. There is clay all around but most that I have found does not pass the bend test very well and does not hold it's shape very well (it sags). Anyhow, I am also very new to all of this. I participated in a 10 day workshop back in June with Juan Quezada and now I am obsessed with the whole thing. Being so new I'm sure that eventually I will find some clay that will work -- or I will figure out how to make the clay that I've found usable.