At school we had a large noisy machine like a mincer from hell, which ground up old clay and relaxed it with slip water and new clay to form a reusable pug – I am fairly sure it was called a (sp?) Malaxor. I was still half inclined to think malaxate is the product, not the process – a noun, not a verb.
Yet from the Dictionary of Difficult Words I get this:
malax
v.t. soften by kneading or diluting. malaxage, n. such softening of clay. malaxate, v.t. malaxation, malaxator, n.

http://www.lineone.net/dictionaryof/difficultwords/d0007887

So I guess that this is another ‘love it or ~ate it’ word – how disorientating!