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Fibers in Clay Ammo? (Read 563 times)
ilButyn
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Fibers in Clay Ammo?
Feb 20th, 2022 at 10:43am
 
Quick question - when making clay ammo, does it make sense to add some plant fibers into the clay, like you do with mud bricks?
Would it make the glandes more durable or would it cause cracking or something?

Has anyone tried it before? I'm about to make my first batch and that idea just sprung into my mind
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: Fibers in Clay Ammo?
Reply #1 - Feb 20th, 2022 at 1:48pm
 
Yes a good idea.
The air dry clay I use has fibres in it.

Anything that increases strength and durability is a good idea Smiley
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IcedFlame
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Re: Fibers in Clay Ammo?
Reply #2 - Feb 20th, 2022 at 7:23pm
 
I never thought of that before…

Good idea though, I’ll have to try that when I make my next batch of clay ammo.
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If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle
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jw
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Re: Fibers in Clay Ammo?
Reply #3 - Feb 21st, 2022 at 2:00pm
 
I’ve added sisal fiber and cotton fiber and the cotton fiber definitely helped don’t think so about the sisal so finer fibers are probably better
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Morphy
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Re: Fibers in Clay Ammo?
Reply #4 - Feb 21st, 2022 at 3:25pm
 
Are these meant to be fired? I imagine unfired it might help but have no idea how that would affect them post-firing.
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Re: Fibers in Clay Ammo?
Reply #5 - Feb 21st, 2022 at 7:21pm
 
@morphy: clay tends to break on impact so adding some sort of fiber to it increases it’s strength a lot. If you want more reusable  ammo it would be a good idea.
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If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle
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Happy Slinging, and God bless my friend.
 
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Morphy
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Re: Fibers in Clay Ammo?
Reply #6 - Feb 22nd, 2022 at 2:56pm
 
Morphy wrote on Feb 21st, 2022 at 3:25pm:
Are these meant to be fired? I imagine unfired it might help but have no idea how that would affect them post-firing.


Would any fire just burn the fibers up? Im just curious, and I have no idea if firing was intended.

I used to use concrete with fiberglass fiber mixed in. It was good stuff. Ultimately it cant hurt.  Wink
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ilButyn
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Re: Fibers in Clay Ammo?
Reply #7 - Feb 22nd, 2022 at 6:01pm
 
I'll just let them dry, don't have any good way to fire them yet.
I think I'll go with cotton.
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David Morningstar
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Re: Fibers in Clay Ammo?
Reply #8 - Feb 23rd, 2022 at 7:06am
 

I have made quite a but of clay ammo over the years. You dont need to add fibers to potters clay. The clays sold as 'air-drying' have tiny fibers added to stop it from shrinking and cracking as it dries, but the simple shapes we are interested in do not crack. These fibers burn away when the clay is fired.

To fire clay, the most important thing is pre-drying. You have to heat up the air dried objects until they are too hot to touch for at least half an hour before you fire them, otherwise they will split in half. With good pre-drying you will get no splitting. A kiln will have a long preheat cycle before full temperature, for pit firing you leave them very close to the fire and turn them a couple of times with a stick.

They can be fired in an open wood fire that is built up with lots of split wood on top slightly spaced apart for big yellow flames and kept topped up with extra wood. Allow this to burn down after 30 minutes of fast burning.
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