Primitive Technology: Mud Bricks

(Turn on captions CC in the lower right corner for more information while viewing. ) I made a brick mold that makes bricks 25 x 12. 5 x 7. 5 cm from wood. A log was split and mortise and tenon joints were carved using a stone chisel and sharp rocks. The mold was lashed together with cane to prevent it from coming apart when used. Next, I made a mixture of mud and palm fiber to make the bricks. This was then placed into the mold to be shaped and taken to a drying area. 140 bricks were made. When dry, the bricks were then assembled into a kiln. 32 roof tiles were then made of mud and fired in the kiln. It only took 3 hours to fire the tiles sufficiently. The mud bricks and tiles were a bit weaker than objects made from my regular clay source because of the silt, sand and gravel content of the soil. Because of this, I will look at refining mud into clay in future projects instead of just using mud. Interestingly, the kiln got hot enough so that iron oxide containing stones began to melt out of the tiles. This