[Cob] Limewash, milk paint and the like.

[Amanda Peck]

I knew better, but somehow I'd thought that lime wash and lime water were 
about the same.  Lime water doesn't do much as a paint!

Thanks Jane.

Apparently butterfat doesn't do paint mixtures any good.  So Buttermilk 
(originally what's left after the butter's made--available in the U.S. south 
for the people who dunk cornbread in it, or use it to make the cornbread in 
the first place), or SKIM MILK.

as in this recipe, taken at random.

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/milkpaint.html

Quicklime (heated limestone) is the raw material for the hydrated lime.  If 
I wanted to try to go from the first to the second I'd want to take a class 
first.  But I don't.

............
Jane wrote (snipped):

1: Put the lime wash on in thin layers. Mixtures of between 1:5 and 1:10
(lime and water) are generally recommended, and I think 1:5 is a little
too thick. You will have to put on several layers (usually 4-6), but the
result will be better.

3: Even though pure lime wash is supposed to stick well and not come off
if it is put on properly, there is an old reciepe on casein lime wash,
which is supposed to give a harder surface. Here you mix in casein
containing milk products. You can use buttermilk (which is quite common in
Denmark where I live but I have an idea that most other countries
considers it undrinkable) or curd cheese, and probably some other milk
products, but not all.