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URL: Man making a base and housing for a Tandoor oven
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Tandoor Oven making:
How is this possible without drying cracks?
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A potter would press clay into a plaster mold to do this. But the hand building techniques these workers use appear to be impossible. Consider:
-Clay shrinks when it dries. When it dries unevenly, it shrinks unevenly. The rim on these should dry and become rigid long before the base. Drying cracks should occur partway down the wall as the base tries to shrink against the already-dry rim. Why does this not happen?
-Dried clay turns back into mud if it gets wet. Why don't these disintegrate in the rain?
-Wouldn't the clay need to be plastic to do what the craftsmen do? Clays having typical pottery plasticity shrink 6%. The friction and drag on the ground, as they dry, should cause cracks. Or at least pull them to an oval shape. Why does this not happen?
-Wet clay cannot be joined to dry clay. How are they doing this?
-How much does the straw addition reduce shrinkage? Even if the straw could cut shrinkage to 3%, that is still 1 inch on a 30 in diameter base.
It appears the answer is that they likely do pull oval. And they don't use a plastic clay, they use a low-plasticity clay-containing grogged paste held together with fiber, achieving minimal shrinkage and sufficient strength.
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