Red Clay for castable core?

[wileythenord]

First of all, this is my first post. I stumbled onto this site last week and have lurked pretty heavily for a few days. I like this site a lot! You guys are very motivational and informative and so far I haven't seen any "shut down" posts by people. On other, ahem, less friendly permaculture sites you constantly see stifling of ideas. That is ridiculous in my opinion.

Anyway, I've seen some of you guy's casted cores for your rocket heaters. I can't remember which poster said they gathered clay from their land to mix to cast with.

I have tons of clay! Unfortunately, it is all red clay. I don't know the insulative properties of red clay over standard clay. Would it even work?

I don't know the mix ratios, but I'm looking at Portland, Red Clay, and Perilite?

Thanks in advance!

Wiley

[pa_friendly_guy]

Welcome Wiley, glad to have you with us. I am sure you will enjoy this site as much as I do. Many of us were members of other sites before we found this one. I am not the one to answer your question, Matt, Colin and Mammy are all more experienced in casting cores for Rocket Stoves than I am, I am sure they will be able to give you an answer. Personally I don't think the color of the clay would make much difference. Why not try a test of the mixture and see how it works? Since each Rocket Stove is a little different and unique and designed to suit your location and personal needs maybe some trial and error is in order. If it doesn't work, or it falls apart, or it is too brittle adjust the mix accordingly. Just my thoughts.

[wileythenord]

Red clay isn't just a different color of clay, it is another beast unto it's own!

But I know what you mean, I just don't want to reinvent the wheel if anyone on this site has experience with using it.

I'm planning on messing around with this this weekend if the rain moves out.

[Lollykoko]

Does having red clay mean you are from the southeastern part of the US, Wiley?

I think Matt made a comment once about squeezing your clay into a solid form (log or ball shape) and adding it to the fire to see how it holds up. Or maybe I dreamed it one of those times I was looking at my silty clay from the hillside and wondering how it would work.

[wileythenord]

That makes sense, I can try that this weekend.

I followed a rabbit trail from another thread on this site and it gave a lot of good info about using clays too.

Yup I'm from the SE, I live in a small town in the TN Valley called Decatur, TN. Beautiful Red Clay as far as the eye can see!

Here is a good shot of our soil, this is my father-in-law and his assistant laying out the footing for my house.


We have about .000000001' of topsoil, and then 6-8 feet of this red clay before hitting the hard stuff.

[matt walker]

Welcome Wiley, glad to have you here! I'm pretty sure your clay is different than my red clay, but the advice is the same no matter what kind. Just start playing with it, make some test bricks and throw them in a fire, that sort of thing. The most important thing is to learn it characteristics so you know what to expect from it. I think you can do quite a bit with local clay, and the only way to know for sure is to experiment with it and find out what it's capable of and what you are comfortable with.

[wileythenord]

Yeah a quick wiki check will tell you about our Red Clay:
Located in humid temperate zones like the SE USA and other humid areas in the world. Wikipedia has a diagram of the USA and where ultisols are located, pretty much everywhere south of the Mason-Dixon and nowhere else lol.

Wiley

[matt walker]

Interesting, it sounds like it would make a fantastic core material. I think you could probably go ahead and do a few tests, then cast a test core for playing with outdoors. I bet you'd get a handle on the stuff quickly that way.