Specialty Products

Ball Clay

Ball clay is a fine-grained sedimentary clay that's mostly kaolinite, with some mica and quartz mixed in. It's very plastic when wet, which means you can shape it and it holds that shape while it dries. The particles are tiny, so a handful of the raw stuff feels dense and slick, not gritty. Fired in a kiln, it turns a buff or cream color.

The name comes from how it used to be dug in England. Miners cut it out in cubes with a spade, and the cubes rolled into rough balls on the way to the wagon. Most of what's mined today goes into ceramics: toilets, sinks, floor tiles, and pottery. It's an industrial clay, not something you'd order by the yard for a driveway or garden bed, and it usually ships by the bag or the pallet from a ceramic supplier.

named grade in this family

What people use it for

Sanitaryware like toilets and sinksFloor and wall tilesPottery and dinnerware bodiesRefractory bricks and shapesPond and landfill liner blends

How to choose within ball clay

Ask before you order

These aren't catalog items. Confirm size, color, and delivery window with the yard before you commit — every load runs differently.

Match the job to the stone

Flagstone, boulders, ballast, glass gravel — each has one right job. Get the job clear first, then the stone follows.

Lead time is longer

A specialty order usually ships slower than a #57 pallet. Plan the delivery date around the material, not the other way around.

All ball clay grades

Ball Clay (Baseball)

Baseball field clayPitcher's mound materialInfield surface maintenance

Other specialty products families

Aglime

Reference

Aglime is limestone that's been crushed and ground into a fine powder or grit.

10 grades→

Sand Blend

Reference

Sand blend is sand mixed with something else to hit a specific job.

7 grades→

Squeegee

Reference

Squeegee is fine crushed rock chips, roughly 1/4 inch and smaller, with the stone dust left in.

4 grades→

Anti Skid Stone

Reference

Anti-skid stone is a small, angular crushed rock you spread on icy roads, driveways, and walkways so tires and shoes can grip.

3 grades→

Grit

Reference

Grit is small, angular crushed stone, usually granite or quartz.

2 grades→

3 Stone

Reference

#3 stone is large crushed rock, roughly 1 1/2 to 2 inches across the biggest pieces.

1 grade→

Agstone

Reference

Agstone is finely crushed limestone that farmers spread on fields to raise soil pH.

1 grade→

Asphalt Mix

Reference

Asphalt mix is crushed rock and sand held together by hot liquid asphalt cement.

1 grade→

Cold Patch

Reference

Cold patch is bagged asphalt you can shovel into a pothole without a hot mix truck.

1 grade→

Field Soil

Reference

Field soil is native dirt scraped and screened straight from open farmland or unused acreage.

1 grade→

Horse Bedding

Reference

Horse bedding is the loose material you spread across a stall floor so a horse has a soft, dry place to stand and lie down.

1 grade→

Masonry Aggregate

Reference

Masonry sand is the fine, clean sand you mix into mortar for laying brick, block, and stone.

1 grade→

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