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tennessee ball

updated tue 31 dec 96

 

Don Jung on thu 12 dec 96

I was wondering if someone could confirm if Tennessee Ball clay could be
used in glazes calling for simply 'Ball Clay'? I've asked locally and I
usually get a 'probably' answer. Does anyone know if there's any
significant difference?

thx muchly

Don Jung
in wet Vancouver BC

Lili Krakowski on fri 13 dec 96

Long ago I learned to grab what
son the shelf, because the differences between mine runs of "brandname"
clays over the years tends to be less than current comparisons between
different "brands." Is that English? No. Let me try again. An OM4
mined in 1956 may be more different from an OM 4 mined today than to a
Tenn5 mined today. As I recall A.R.T lists chemical analyses of clays in
their catalog. I do not have one on hand, so cannot help. Someone else
may. Try whatever you have. Anyay I have used tenn 5. works fine.

Lili Krakowski lkkrakow@edisto.cofc.edu

On Thu, 12 Dec 1996, Don Jung wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> I was wondering if someone could confirm if Tennessee Ball clay could be
> used in glazes calling for simply 'Ball Clay'? I've asked locally and I
> usually get a 'probably' answer. Does anyone know if there's any
> significant difference?
>
> thx muchly
>
> Don Jung
> in wet Vancouver BC
>

Karen Gringhuis on fri 13 dec 96

Don - Of course! The Tenn. ball clays are what the recipe had in mind
probably. Depending into what you are putting it, you can compare ball clays
by getting an info folder from the Ky-Tn Mine Co (I can send address
if you need). Or make sample test bars out of each clay (I can explain
if you want), fire them as you usually do & eye ball the results.

Now that I've already told you more than you wanted to know, I
think ball clays are fairly interchangeable depending on what
you're doing - so don't worry. (Someone here on Clayart recently
sad bad things about a clay body containing Thomas Ball Clay -
I've never heard of it but keep it in mind. I've never heard
of problems w/ the Ky Tn stuff.).

Back to the test bars - I did this w/ OM-4 & Tn #9 & the colors
were quite diff. in redtn. Tenn #9 creamy white, Om-4 gray.
Good luck. Karen Gringhuis

Don Jung on tue 17 dec 96

Thanks for the responses both on and off the list. I've since tested
both in slips and clear glazes with little or no noticeable
differences. The final analysis is in the testing anyways, but with
your advice, I was more confident that I wasn't wasting my time...Then
Karen posted a whoa, take that back message. It's ok though, since I'm
not buying new and the tennessee ball I was testing is quite old. I
intend to order OM4 when it runs out...then test again.

thx Don Jung