Cob: cob domes

[Darel Henman]

Ben,
 sorry I didn't get to this earlier.  Your question about firing.

> > Could such a structure be fired or would the
> > wood framework burn out and cause massive failure of the structure?

Firstly I don't think firing is a good thing for soil walls. Actually
cermanic would not be a good thing to have a wall out of in my opinion. 
It would be to brittle and subject to cracking.   The temperature you
would need to cermanic-ify? would be really, really high.  I would guess
about 1,475 degrees Fahrenheit.  Not something easy to obtain from a
wood, or ooal fire.   

I don't recommend that you try it.  If you really want to do a little
experiment first and make sure that all of the wood is covered and no
cracks are available for oxygen.   You might make a nice carcoal, which
is wood burned without oxygen I believe?

People have made stoves with wattle and daub.  Hopefully one of them
would comment.  And tell us if they have in fact reached "ceramic" state
changes in their soil walls.

Darel

Darel