Picknick time at Boyd Lake State Park:
Boyd Lake beach is more clay than sand
The clay is easy to find and sample. Just watch out for various bird (and people) droppings. You might think the clay would be good for making DIY pottery, perhaps?
Clay test pieces
These are what I would call “Raw Boyd Lake Clay” in that the material was never processed to remove the sand and bird shit or whatever might be in the clay before rolling it into the shapes seen above.
Hot Kiln, up to 1800 deg. F.
This is a small kiln the HUB got free. It’s small, but it was free, so we took it.
Cooked out Clay
The clay samples are shown above, each taken out of the kiln at a temperature listed below (I needed to put this data someplace, and it shows how long it takes the kiln to get up to temperature.
Kiln test, start time 9:58 AM
TIME TEMP Dec. C Samples
10:04 200 one, band #1 greenware color
10:12 400 two, dand #2 red with dark spots
10:18 500 one, band #3 red, reduced dark spots
10:26 600 one, Band #1+, bright red, no sport
10:40 700 one, band #2+, as above
10:59 800 one, Band 3+, as above
11:39 900 two, unmarked, dark drown