Cob Re.cob fireplace

[Don Stephens]

On Mon, 18 May 1998, Rog wrote:
No He wasn't yarning at all! The warning I heard most was to watch out for
river rocks. I have experienced a situation where we were doing a sweat
lodge with some rocks with found and the rocks gave off a horrible smell 
and made our lungs burn from the oder of the hot rocks.
 
Yike!  I'm glad it wasn't the explosive type, with little fragments of
rock spraying into supple, steamy skin.  Not exactly the look and feel one
goes for in a sweat lodge, imo.

Don wrote:  My understyanding and experience is to avoid crack-filled or
vasicular rocks (as in lava rocks full of holes) as either can contain wet
spots from which water cannot escape in a fire before it turns to steam.
This is particularly true of rock which has been under water for some
time.  If in doubt, pre-bake any that are suspect in the sun a few weeks
before using in a flame-contact application.   I believe the native
peoples in our part of the country chose river-rounded but sun-baked
granite cobbles and heated them in a fire outside their dwelling or sweat
lodge before bringing them in.  They not only used them to produce steam
but also dropped them into waterproofed baskets with water to boil their
food!