>I think it looked 'washed out' when I had finished.

Tom, I'll have to try the Sterling Magic Greg suggested. I'm new at this and several good sources suggested mineral oil or sewing machine oil to give back some appearance to a cleaned chip. You can find mineral oil on the "Laxatives" aisle (Sheesh, the places these chippers hang out...). I was a little chagrined to find that the oil will transfer to other chips if you stack them together, even after a few days of drying and wipe off so use some care. I'm hoping that the clay will keep absorbing the oil dressing and I'll be keeping an eye on this.