The raw materials for the production of Ru porcelain have been developed over hundreds of years by a large number of porcelain craftsmen, and the perfect formula has been figured out.
Just like minerals with a high degree of weathering, due to the scouring effect during the weathering process, the raw materials contain relatively few impurities, which can ensure the quality of your porcelain from the root.
This way, it's simple.
If necessary, Chen Wenzhe can even directly synthesize and refine higher-quality porcelain raw materials himself.
In ancient times, these were definitely not optimal due to the development of science and technology.
But now, these things have become very simple.
If necessary, Chen Wenzhe can provide detailed mineral categories, coupled with the element ingredient list, some clay factories can accurately configure the top-quality tire clay and glaze for him.
In fact, when purchasing mineral raw materials, Chen Wenzhe had already written down the requirements, which allowed for a rough selection.
In this way, once the raw materials are in his hands, he can handle them carefully.
In this way, the formula is kept secret and he can save a lot of things.
By studying and understanding the manufacturing process of Ru porcelain, Chen Wenzhe can save a lot of things.
Especially the first few steps may seem very simple, but if they are not done well, they can directly affect the quality of your porcelain.
Compared with ancient times, Chen Wenzhe can save only two steps. In addition to the first step of material selection, the second step is crushing.
Crushing raw materials should not look simple. In ancient times, it was not easy to achieve the desired effect.
In ancient times, especially during the Northern Song Dynasty, the raw materials could only be processed using millstones or stone mills.
The raw materials processed in this way have more dispersed particle sizes and better plasticity.
However, the drying shrinkage is large and it is easy to cause deformation, cracking and other molding problems.
Therefore, among the Ru kiln wares handed down from ancient times, it is rare to see large-scale wares.
In addition, relics with large surface areas such as plates, cups, and washbasins unearthed from the Ru Kiln site often suffer from deformation, cracking, and other phenomena.
Therefore, the crushing and processing methods of raw materials in Ru kiln in the Northern Song Dynasty can directly affect the size and appearance of Ru kiln porcelain fired later.
This point is very important, and now that the defects are known, if Chen Wenzhe wants to process some slightly larger Ru kiln wares, he can work hard in this area.
Of course, the internal structure of the large-scale Ru kilns produced in this way will be somewhat changed, otherwise defects such as deformation and cracking cannot be avoided.
However, after avoiding these defects, the Ru kiln wares produced should still have the exquisiteness of the Ru kiln wares handed down from ancient times, such as the jade-like glaze and the azure glaze color!
The third part is washing. This step is also a step that can be improved.
After all, the effects produced by modern machinery were absolutely impossible for ancient people to achieve.
Of course, manual washing and manual crushing of raw materials also have unique effects brought about by firing Ru kiln porcelain.
Elutriation is the process of removing the coarse and fine parts from the crushed raw materials.
Now at the Ru kiln site, a filter tank for washing raw materials, a mud mud tank, and an ash ditch connecting them have been discovered.
These equipments have been prepared in the ceramics factory.
It doesn’t have to be too large, just enough.
Anyway, Chen Wenzhe didn't want to imitate Ru kiln porcelain in large quantities. The facilities he needed could only be slightly modified.
The filter tank is mainly used to filter mud. In the Ru Kiln ruins, the filter tank was filled with bluish-gray mud, charcoal particles and white clay blocks. There was a drainage channel in the southeast of the pool entrance, and there was a fine bluish-gray mud left in the tank.
Through these things, we can also infer some of the production processes of Ru kiln porcelain.
It's all in the details, and details determine success or failure.
Just take Chen Wenzhe, if he hadn't seen the process of making Ru porcelain by Yan He, the ancient Ru kiln master, how would he wash the fetal mud?
Although he will also pay attention to it, to what extent can he pay attention to it?
If you have a filter tank, do you still need a mud tank?
How are the facilities connecting these pools built? And why are they built in this way?
Among the ruins of Ru Kiln, fine bluish-gray mud also remains at the bottom of the Chengni Pond. There is a row of water troughs in the southeast corner of the pond, which are filled with fine bluish-gray mud.
The remaining fine blue-gray mud at the bottom of the gray ditch is exactly the same as the remaining blue-gray mud at the bottom of the Chengmu Pond.
According to the direction of the ash ditch and the remains in the ditch, it is speculated that the ash ditch and the mud pond are a whole. The raw materials for making porcelain are filtered through the filter tank and discharged through the ash ditch. Finally, the sediments deposited in the ash ditch are transported to the mud pond.
Further aging occurs in the pool, and the raw materials are finally processed.
The relationship between the unearthed relics and the overlapping strata indicates that the filter pond, ash ditch and mud mud pond were supporting facilities of the same period.
Now even the supporting facilities for making Ru kiln porcelain, Chen Wenzhe has prepared everything. At this time, he is just waiting for the east wind.
When workers in the ceramics factory transported raw materials from South Vietnam Customs into the factory, that's when Chen Wenzhe showed his talents.
After procrastinating and spending a whole day, the raw materials finally arrived.
When he opened the packaging bags of the raw materials and saw some mineral materials inside, Chen Wenzhe breathed a sigh of relief.
Sure enough, what Li Jinli bought him were some processed semi-finished products, and they were all carefully processed materials in strict accordance with his requirements.
And just like that, Chen Wenzhe still needs secondary processing.
However, after careful study for a while, Chen Wenzhe discovered that Li Jinli did a better job than he thought, because Li Jinli saved him some time-consuming processes.
"It's already stale! Just crush it again as required and it will work!"
Although I haven't seen Li Jinli for a long time, Li Jinli's support for him has not been compromised at all.
After checking it carefully, he found that all he needed to do was crush it and filter it. Even the last stale mud did not need to be processed.
And the price of such raw materials is certainly not low.
With the help of Li Jinli, Chen Wenzhe saved a lot of worry and trouble, so the porcelain clay and glaze were quickly prepared, followed by molding.
Molding is a method of using a mold to make a body, which is really simple for Chen Wenzhe.
As for the mold, he has already prepared it. Even if he wants to save trouble, it is not impossible to use the mold that already exists in the ceramics factory.
This is not difficult for anyone who imitates Ru kiln porcelain, because a certain number of ceramic molds used to make imperial Ru porcelain have been unearthed from the Ru kiln site.
These molds are mostly made by hand-drawn blanking technology and are unique. There are two types of molds: inner molds and outer molds.
As long as there is a mold, it is very easy to make a prototype.
Many of the shapes of Ru kiln porcelain are very classic, because almost all of them are practical ware.
Many types of practical utensils require larger quantities, such as dishes, dishes, etc.
These practical devices that require mass production are naturally most convenient to use molds.
Some types of wares are rather peculiar and do not require much Ru kiln porcelain, so there is no need to use molds to produce them, which is not cost-effective.