making bricks

Thinking of conversations with a brick one evening, led me to ask myself, How hard is it to make a brick? How much energy? What makes it?

Adobe Brick (Mud Brick)

The first thing was to look for a rectangular mold, here, mom to suggested a baking tray.

Then dug up some red earth(laterites). I quickly learnt here that damp red earth is easier to dig than dry. Luckily it rained quite a bit the night before and work was left moderately easy.

Mixing the earth and putting it in the mold, I realized, I forgot to think of a way to remove the brick,so I removed everything and lined the mold with a sheet of plastic from an old plastic bag, put the clayey earth in and pulled it out of the mold. About 3 parts soil to 1 part water, mixed and kneaded like dough. There it was a brick!

Recalling the conversation with the lonely brick, it told me, "Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?"

hmm...

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Rammed Earth Brick!

Another follow up experiment, the rammed earth brick

Formwork this time with steel band reinforcements, soil mixed to a consistency best described as clumped when pressed but falls apart when dropped.

Mini tamper with a short handle to size :)

tamped with hammer, many many times

Left to dry in sun in formwork, leave in formwork for a couple days before removing,

Two test cubes on the right corner, from previous brick recipe

Louis Kahn will be amazed!

Ps. Im still drying it for 1 or 2 more days before I remove the formwork as a safe measure :)