Developing Opacified Stoneware Ceramic Products through Experimentation with Waste Bones from Abattoirs in Akure, Nigeria

Abstract

Most small scale ceramic industries depend on imported raw materials among which are opacifiers because locally sourced ones are not adequately processed. It has been observed that refined tin oxide is expensive despite the fact that it is abundantly availability in Nigeria while a lot of bone laid wastes which can be recycled to produce opacifier. A comparative study was made on the physical properties of opaque glaze produced locally with bone ash and that of processed tin oxide when mixed with transparent glazes at different percentages using tri-axial blend. The result proved that 7 to 9 % of cow bone ashes with transparent glazes made a good composition in achieving an opaque glaze. The success of this experiment has reduced the dependency on tin oxide as ceramic glaze opacifier which has been expensive to procure and has given ceramic artist the platform that would allow paintings using ceramic oxides that could be attractive and competitive which is seldomly used in the country

Keywords: Bone Ash, Opacifier, Stoneware and Sustainability.