Buff Stone

A general-purpose medium plasticity clay. If you are using clay with children the lower price of Buffstone and its utility may interest you. Firing is commonly done at cone 06-04 (usually with bottled underglazes and glazes).

Buffstone is pure A3, one of our native buff-color-burning stoneware materials. It contains a small amount of bentonite to improve plasticity and slow down drying. Its texture is somewhat sandy. Some plasticity is lost to the clay body when scrap clay is reconstituted, add more bentonite if needed (e.g. 1%). Extra drying precautions are appropriate for pieces of uneven thickness.

At cone 06 all buff and white burning clays fire to a porous matrix and have low strength (Buffstone is a little more porous than most). Notwithstanding this, cone 06 is convenient for schools and a wide array of commercial low-fire glazes are available for the making of decorative objects. Buffstone requires no special firing procedures if ware is completely dry. It will withstand kiln firings up to cone 10. For low fire glazing the higher you can bisque the stronger ware will be (we recommend cone 03 or 02).