Contamination while reclaiming

Noobie reclaimer here! I started reclaiming recently and use a metal scraping tool to scrape the clay off my board, but it’s been rusting since clay has just been sitting on the scraper (I don’t have a water trap for clay so I haven’t been able to clean it) and it got into the clay. Would I still be able to fire this in the kiln? Or would all this clay have to be tossed? :frowning:

Iron oxide (rust) is a fairly common ingredient in clay. Most of the red clays (and glazes) contain iron oxide. It works more as a coloring agent rather than something that melts and sticks.

You should be fine.

Thank you!! Just wanted to make sure!

Though you may get small rusty speckles in the clay when fired.

The more you wedge the clay and mix it, the less obvious any specks might be. If you can’t see the rust color in the reclaimed clay, you likely won’t see it in the fired piece either.

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