My DIY Wild Clay

For ages I've been wanting to make a frugal rocket stove. Last Oct I saw simple directions for making one of wild clay.
Finally, a transferrable skill from youthful days stirring up mud-pie concoctions in the back yard!
I know a couple spots to dig up clay so I got started right away, reading more how to's and design tips as a few further inspirations found their opportunity to be included.
While I was tempted to get real deco with design, texture, and color on the surface, such as a dragon's head with flaming mouth, but decided to go pretty basic this time. With the clay being intentionally quite thick, I gave it several weeks indoors to dry, patched the cracks and let it dry a few more weeks before the maiden voyage fire-wise. As an air-dried, un-fired clay item, it may crack more or fall apart after a few fires. I don't mind if it does, it's been a rewarding process, the first fire in January was great, and I'm happy with how the project came out.
First Fire Laid. Used my hatchet to split one cedar shake scrap into a little pile of teeny tiny tinder, and another little pile of larger kindling. Also some dried elderberry twigs and sticks that I'd gathered during a dry spell and set aside. Upon a couple small balled up pieces of newspaper, I laid the first fire.A handy beeswax candle provided a steady flame to alight long kindlings for reaching in to encourage the fire to start. The wick being burnt low in the candle helped keep the wind from blowing the flame out till I didn't need the candle anymore.
As hoped, my little clay rocket stove heated water pretty quickly once it got going. Even a tiny fire burns fuel fast, and takes focused attention to keep it fed enough but not too much. I boiled two cups of water for a pot of tea, to see how long it'd take. I sat sipping as I enjoyed feeding the last sticks into the tiny hearth. When the fire had burnt out, the outside surface of the thick clay radiated the stored heat; a toasty warm lingers that is welcoming to cold hands.
Sorry for all the edits, my connection would only allow a couple photos to upload per edit.
That's all for now tho' it's cold outside and I'm feeling inspired to light 'er up again

That's beautiful, Nancy! I love the way you sculpted it.

You may find that the fire vitrifies the clay to a certain extent. There's a very basic clay stove in my Bulgarian garden that is many years old and has clearly seen a lot of use, yet it's still intact and usable.

A truly beautiful stove!

Thank you for sharing how to make it, too.

Nice job The wire reinforcement is a good addition to the plan - it will keep the clay together better when it cracks. I would even mix some straw in to make it proper cob, which (except for the hotter part on the inside) will reinforce the stove nicely and keep it from developing big cracks. When I build cob pottery kilns (getting up to 2000 F), I mix dry grass clippings into the clay to give it pores all over and make it less likely to pop when first heated, yet still able to give nice smooth surfaces.

You will get better results by making the stove bigger, like two cans long and high instead of just one. Some thoughts for your fancy one after the first experiment proves out.

Thanks everybody, for your compliments, comments and suggestions!

This looks good! I am wanting to try out a simple clay + stone cookstove and need a design that strikes a balance between pulling good draft and staying relatively flat or low profile overall. This would be for embedded counter top installation in an outdoor (roofed but not walled) kitchen. Plenty of twigs and small diameter wood to burn. This seems like a good candidate. I'm curious if anyone has other ideas or refinements to consider? I'm willing to get somewhat creative with air flow design to try and recirculate some combustion for cleaner burn too.

Very cool - I'll have to try making one, too!  

Very nice setup :D

I have heard, but am no expert, that including some "grog" in the mix helps prevent cracking. Grog is just fired clay that is then crushed and mixed in.

You appear to be using this dry, but not fired.

I wonder if it might be possible to make an rocket stove like this that were actually fired to pottery temperatures? If you could make it work it would be more weather proof maybe?

You would need to have or make a kiln big enough to hold the stove in order to fire it hard enough to be worthwhile. Just building a bonfire around it may make it not melt immediately in water, but not enough to be durable. A fire would need to be sustained for possibly hours to fire it throughout.

A roofed area to keep direct rain or snow off would be a better option, as well as giving it a water resistant coating.

Grog is definitely a good idea, as is sand in proportions up to around 3 sand to 1 clay (assuming your clay is fairly pure with little grit in it). Adding some straw will also help to reduce and distribute/minimize cracks.

If you use tin can inner forms, you need to remove them as soon as the clay is stiff enough to stand up, as the clay is going to shrink as it dries and will crack around rigid forms. Wrapping the cans with paper will help make removal easy. If the paper sticks to the clay, no problem, it will burn out in the first fire.

Wrapping the whole stove in cloths or a loose plastic drape will make it dry slower and more evenly, minimizing differential shrinkage cracks.