Talk: Find and Prepare Clay

Purpose

Discussion for improving the clay article (field identification, cleaning methods, and temper ratios across very different clay sources).

Open questions

• Is the coil test alone enough field guidance, or should a shrinkage test (marked wet bar measured after drying) be added as a standard step?
• Should washing/settling get its own diagram?

Proposed improvements

• Add a diagram: bank cross-section (topsoil/clay band) + coil test pass/fail.
• Add regional notes on clay colors and what they imply (iron content etc.) once chemistry articles exist.

Decisions

• Level 0: finding and preparing clay requires no artificial tools (digging stick and water are natural inputs).
• Temper is defined here and referenced by the furnace and pottery articles.