mregecko Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Hey everyone -- just a quick question hopefully. I'm using some ^10 black mountain clay for my first time (not the sculpture), and just did a bisque load including some bowls and a few test tiles. It was thrown in with my studio's normal bisque cycle (^05-06), medium rate, along with a bunch of the normal ^6 clays that we use. And it came out feeling VERY soft / porous. Is this normal for black mountain? It obviously has a higher vitrification point than the rest of the clays in the same kiln, but it feels softer than our normal bisque. It does "ring" when tapped, but I was able to snap one of the test tiles in half pretty easily. Thanks in advance! -- Mr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biglou13 Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Last studio I was at had bisqued that clay different from the standard bisque. ill ask next I'm there. Best to call mfgr. There definitely different requirements for bisque. I wasn't to impressed by color at cone 6 ox. Standard 266 had better color. Darker color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 266 is beautiful. A very dark charcoal. And it throws great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mregecko Posted February 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 I know it requires a lot of oxygen in the bisque because it has a lot of organics to burn out. I made sure it wasn't packed super tightly and the firing was fairly long in duration. I just wasn't sure about the appropriate bisque texture. I'll check with my vendor first, then maybe escalate to the manufacturer if necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshur Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 My one experience with Black Mountain, was a failure for my application. It was the sculpture mix, hard to work with, came out of the bisque very porous, rough and spongy, but intact, but when high fired it came apart. As you can see from the picture, not only would it not hold a seam, but the body itself failed, never had another clay do that, needless to say I only tried it once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mregecko Posted February 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 Interesting! There are a lot of studios around here (Bay Area) that use it heavily. I'm intrigued to see how it turns out. And somewhat reassuring to hear your bisque came out porous as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benzine Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 My one experience with Black Mountain, was a failure for my application. It was the sculpture mix, hard to work with, came out of the bisque very porous, rough and spongy, but intact, but when high fired it came apart. As you can see from the picture, not only would it not hold a seam, but the body itself failed, never had another clay do that, needless to say I only tried it once. I think whatever was inside, got out. Based on the darkness inside the ware, and the high temperature of the kiln, this is the likely suspect: http://www.angelfire.com/biz7/rainsdragons_zoids2/balrog7.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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