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Crushed Terracotta for Cocciopesto, Coarse and Fine
Broken pottery, tile or brick, crushed and mixed with lime, made the Roman waterproof mortar opus signinum (cocciopesto), used for baths, aqueducts and cisterns. Pliny says the broken pottery was beaten to powder. Crush fired brick or tile and sieve it into a coarse grade and a fine powder.
The picture: a fragment of Roman pavement, broken pottery set in lime.
Beginner
Half a day
Instructions
1
1
Break it up
Break it up
Put fired bricks or tile pieces in a sack and break them with the sledgehammer into pieces smaller than a walnut. Wear glasses.
Materials for this step:
Fired Clay Bricks3 piecesTools needed:
Jute Sack
Sledgehammer
Safety Glasses2
2
Sieve the coarse grade
Sieve the coarse grade
Shake the crush through the sieve. What passes is the coarse grade; what stays goes back in the sack to be crushed again.
Tools needed:
Sieve
Bucket3
3
Pound to powder
Pound to powder
Pound some of the coarse grade in the mortar and shake it through the fine sieve. What passes is the fine powder.
Tools needed:
Stone Mortar and Pestle
Fine Mesh SieveBucketSafety Glasses4
4
Store
Store
Keep each grade dry in its own bucket, ready to mix with lime.
Tools needed:
Bucket5
5
Sorting the crush
Sorting the crush
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Materials
1- 3 piecesPlaceholder
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