Building a tandoor - what type of clay to use and...

[Babs]

Must be nearly lunch time! Distracted? Easily done!

Meant to be doing business bookwork or throwing a soup bowl order so..........

[indigav]

@Oldlady

Thank you for an easy to understand and kindly worded explanation. Much appreciated.

 

@Tyler Miller

That's a great help. Thank you

 

I've added a link for a youtube clip. It's a little jerky and the speakers are not in English though the text is. This isn't exactly what I'm hoping for, but at least it shows something of the process in both the clay mix and the firing. I'd really want to place a pot inside a brick structure, fill the cavity space with vermiculite and cap it so only the opening to the tandoor oven space was available. Anyway, please have a look and hats off to the guys that did this.

 

 

I think I'd be able to get the ingredients together to make the clay for a tandoor, but as Tyler points out, I've no idea how to fire it.

I do wonder how all the tandoors in use across these really rural villages are actually fired though.  I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have a friendly (or expensive) pottery around the corner with a big kiln to fire it for them. There must be a way and something we're missing here. Or perhaps they don't fire it after all, like with cob ovens.

 

Thanks to all that have helped here.

[perkolator]

Or perhaps they don't fire it after all, like with cob ovens.

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I'm pretty sure they don't traditionally  "fire" them like ceramics.  They just get dried out really well and then "cured" and slowly heated from within the first few times.  Many different ways to cure a tandoor, but it's similar process to seasoning a cast iron skillet.  I believe the go-to is molasses to cure the interior.

 

if you wanted to fire one, you could always build it to just fit inside your kiln like this guy: