Vegetable ash as raw material in the production of glasses and enamels, for example the contemporary vegetable ashes from Burgundy, France

TL;DR

This study analyzes the composition of various vegetable ashes from Burgundy, France, highlighting their potential as raw materials in glass, enamel, and ceramic production due to their high alkali content and variability.

Contribution

It provides detailed compositional data of diverse vegetable ashes, challenging the assumption that recycling solely causes compositional variability.

Findings

Vegetable ashes have broad compositional ranges in alkali and silica content.

Recycling is not the only factor influencing ash composition variability.

Vegetable ashes are suitable as modifiers in silicate-based materials.

Abstract

The powdery nature and high alkali content of vegetable ashes make them ideal raw materials to be used as modifiers of silicate compositions (glasses, enamels and ceramics). Their utilisation since ancient times is described in the literature of the history of glasses, but studies on the analyses of their composition are still limited. We discuss here the compositions of tree and shrub ashes (wattle, hawthorn, oak, green oak, olive wood, elm, poplar, apple tree, vine shoot), of plants (carex, fern, dogwood), of cereals (wheat, maize, rice), threshing waste and hay, mainly harvested in Maconnais, near Taiz\'e (Sa\^one-et-Loire, France), by the potter Brother D. de Montmolin. The contributions in alkali modifiers (Na2O, K2O), alkaline-earth (CaO, MgO) and in silica are discussed in view of the data gathered from the literature of the history of techniques used in the production of ceramics, enamels and glasses. The huge variation in composition is usually attributed to recycling and is questioned by the very broad range of compositions that we obtained in the analyses of the ashes.