How clay is dug
Clay is the oldest ceramic ingredient: people were firing it into pottery around 14,000 BCE.
- stations
- 3
- things downstream
- 178
The short version
Clay is soil made of microscopic plates of aluminum silicate minerals. It is dug from open pits where the layer is thick and clean, stockpiled, and often left to weather. Its tiny flat particles hold water, which makes wet clay moldable and lets it harden when dried or fired.
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Dig the clay pit
Clay lies in beds, often mixed with silt. Diggers strip the soil above a thick clean layer and excavate it with shovels and loaders.
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Pick out stones and roots
The raw clay is screened or crushed to remove stones and plant material, so that the finished product has the same texture all the way through.
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Stockpile and weather
Clay is stacked in the open, where rain and frost break lumps apart and water spreads evenly. Users then add water until it reaches the plasticity they need.
Worth repeating
- Shale, which is made largely of clay, is the most common sedimentary rock.
- Clay minerals are tiny thin plates, which gives them a very high surface area for their size.
Where it goes next
Clay feeds 13 lines directly and reaches 178 things in total.
Further down the line
Keep walking
Sources
Cite this page: "How clay is dug." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/clay