[Cob] cob stoves & light straw

[Amanda Peck]

I THINK that the original questions were supposed to be unrelated.  But I 
expect you're right, you should probably pretty well treat a light 
clay/straw wall as a combustable wall for stove purposes, even if it would 
be fine in most house fire situations.

And the weight did seem a bit much to me in the article, but I've very 
little experience on weights and buildings--just look it up in the table and 
go by that!

But if one was building the Ken Kern woodstove--I think he recommends 
fiberglass as an insulator for his 55 gallon drum.  I wonder if one could 
use wood ashes instead?  I hate fiberglass.

...............
Charmaine wrote (snipped):
But when a clay slip coats the chips of the the straw the
weight--in the wall- dry --is at 300-500 lbs per c/ft.

so there was a misprint in that article.

In the ROCKET stove designs they recommend the wood ash itself as the 
insulator
between the walls of the tin cans to make the best insulation, or crumpled 
tin
foil..using the least mass to prevent absorption of heat, so the most heat 
goes
to the cooking.

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