Making Alchemist's Clay: My Updated Process

Just a quick video this week that I've been promising for a while! my revised alchemical clay process.

Andy ward's channel: @AncientPottery

Potted History: @PottedHistory

[AncientPottery]

Thanks for the shout out, this is an interesting idea I will have to try.

[Templarfreak]

i feel like Al-Razi himself would be proud of how much you have refined and modernized his process

[TheGrmany]

You can also try letting the decanted clay win rice water until it ferments. The Japanese and indigenous people in Venezuela do this technique alike in their own ways to make a very smooth form of clay that allows them to build mud walls. The Japanese use rice straw mind you, because it has a high quantities of silica. The gross smell is a good sign. Basically you leaves the leaves root in the solution.

[pannekook]

a good way to mix two powders together is to put them in a jar together filled about halfway, close it, then invert the jar a dozen or so times over multiple axes. Makes it easier to mix and homogenize powders without getting as much dust in the air.

[raymondloomer]

Clay storage
The best way to store clay is wet wrapped in plastic or some other airtight container. (for as long as you can)
Clay actually ages. Once you have properly aged clay you can use a piece of it to "infect" new clay for aging more quickly.
What happens is that bacterial life takes place in the clay making it more workable.
Some crafty clay workers will even try to buy the "old clay" from the dealers at a reduced price (because it is old) taking advantage of the art suppliers ignorance of clay.
= Ray

[cynthiaskaggs]

Here in Illinois we have a great clay layer… if you have the muscle to dig 30” down through the topsoil. I found a great way to avoid the work though. I find fox dens. Foxes often dig down through the topsoil and into the clay layer to make their dens. This leaves huge mounds of loose clay all around. I simply scoop it up into buckets! I can get 3-4 5gal buckets full of granulated pure clay from A single fox den and there’s nearly no sand, sticks or impurities.

[storyspren]

I saw the alchemist's clay video a while back (I don't remember when exactly, it was in my recommendations) and this morning I watched the alchemy deep dive after seeing it in my recommendations yesterday, and oh my god it's the best recommendation I've had in a while because it's not only a fascinating video in its own right but also it made me think "isn't this the guy who made alchemist's clay a while back?" Lo and behold, I check and yep you're him, and the other video titles also piqued my interest so here I am now, in the evening, starting a channel discovery binge now that I've done what I need to today.

[greedtheron]

This is my new favorite channel and it's criminal that youtube hasn't put your videos out there more. This channel feels like those memes from a couple years back that the Primitive Technology channel would be making a steam engine right now or half way to making a computer, except he just stuck with making grass huts. Here you are remaking the cutting edges of right before the industrial revolution. Maybe the channel would be better named Renaissance Technology or Alchemy Technology or something for the memes.

[NoahSpurrier]

I remember my ceramics teacher in high school in the 80’s told me how his teacher used to treat his clay by keeping a bucket full of clay saturated with water. He would toss in some apples and potatoes and stir it every once in a while for a few months. Then he would decant the water off and dry the clay.

[stasi]

Please make video about simple glazes and dyes that achient people used.

[OmegaYak]

Very interesting; that method of cooking flour and water to gelatinize the starch is also used in certain bread recipes to keep the bread softer and prevent staling. It's known as a tangzhong. Cool that it works for clay as well!

[leiatyndall]

So, add carbon ((homemade) charcoal) to iron to make steel; add charcoal to clay to make workable potter's clay; charcoal to chicken feed/water for smell/disease control; review videos on how to make biochar & activated charcoal; make charcloth for DIY fire pistons; carbon felt (how are these made?) for eternal wicks...if I had some land, I think I'd acquire 2 metal barrels & make some charcoal!!! So many uses!!

[Jim-znqy]

If you take finely ground charcoal and a thick starch paste you can then ram the mixture in a steel pipe capped at both ends, one with a small vent hole in it. Compress the mixture with a hydraulic jack and a tree . Then place it in a hot fire for several hours. When you're done you will have a carbon rod like what was used in welding and lights.

[Allycat]

Smell aside, I had a pottery teacher that swore that fermentation or....fungus... would help with strength. He said he had a friend who poured a beer into his (huge studio sized) batches of new clay expressly for this purpose. He did have very few explosions even with a bunch of student projects going into the kiln every day, so who knows.

[thomascranor]

This is literally modern alchemy! It's incredible and inspiring, and I hope to keep seeing more of this!

[CarcayúMustelidae]

Man i'm really interested in how you made that mortar and pestle

[bruce-le-smith]

I love the inclusion of the chemistry, thank you! Really great content

[LwSkiller]

You've brought me so many of those human "oh, OH!" moments when things just click. Thank you your efforts, they have not gone unnoticed:)

[lucascsrs]

You deserve so much more subscribers. Literally a hidden gem on YT.

[assasinpatates]

Al-Razi is pronounced "arraazee". The vowels in the word "Razi" are long vowels and when the definite article "al" comes before R in Arabic, the L turns into an R. Making it "Arraazee".