[Cob] WOOD FIBER COB--alternative uses/ideas

[Joseph Kennedy]

Dear Charmaine,
 
I really appreciate your common sense approach.  If a fiber seems strong, it's stong.  If a binder seems to stick, try it out.  If you have some admixture, throw it in and see.  The proof is in the pudding.
 
I remember someone telling me of one of the English cobbers that he never saw a subsoil he didn't like.  I've never seen a fiber, I've never met a clay, I've never met an admixture, I couldn't at least consider.  If in doubt, be conservative.  Try and see.  One of my favorite mixes was horse manure and clay for cordwood construction.  This of course was dismissed by the "experts".  Screw em!  It's like cooking.  Get good at the recipes and then go wild.
 
My thoughts, whatever their worth.
 
Best,
 
Joe Kennedy
 
> Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:10:20 -0700
> From: dirtcheapbuilderbooks at gmail.com
> To: coblist at deatech.com
> Subject: [Cob] WOOD FIBER COB--alternative uses/ideas
> 
> " but all of the wood fibers that I have seen so far are stronger than
> any straw that I have ever seen.
> The pile of shredded wood in my photo essay is 100% willow oak,
> Robert uses a six inch Vermeer shredder with auto-feed, but I have
> seen similar chips
> produced by other chippers and other types of wood."
> ++++++++++++++++
> 
> I am always glad to see wood fiber/waste fiber being discussed, as it
> proves the wide scale of uses for organic materials.
> 
> As you all know 'papercrete' and paper adobe uses shredded paper, and
> clay sandy dirt combined with cement, or without, to make walls,
> blocks, plasters..similar to cob. Becky Bee saw paper being added
> while she was in AU/NZ and added it to her cob too, creating
> 'papercob', and cobber Michael Smith called his version with wood
> fibers 'cobwood'
> 
> But as reported for the more than the last DECADE- since 1998- use of
> OTHER organics: chopped dry fibers, Redwood tree sawdust ( my
> favorite) and dry shredded shrubbery/bushes (called Agstone by
> inventor in Calif., John Stahl, learn more at www.tree.org).
> 
> Redwood bark comes off in long strips, and is very 'stringy'
> naturally, once dried, can be combined with sawdust to give both
> volume and tensile strength to a clay mix.
> 
> Also Stahl and Canadian builders used hemp/bast fiber- both waste
> from medicinal plant growth and industrial hemp waste can be
> shredded and used with clay.
> John said he often awoke at his remote land site in Mendicino county
> to find huge mounds of chopped down medicinal hemp plants dumped on
> his property by local nervous growers. Which he gratefully used to
> grind up in his Hollander beater, and with a boat turbine mixer he
> added other binders to make his "Agstone" building material. (John
> had virtually NO clay on his rocky property, so he used purchased sand
> and cement- his only option he thought, to test and create his
> formulas. And he did it very scientifically, making tubes of many
> variations of mixes to determine the best for building outdoor stairs,
> floors, and walls. He used a commercial grade wood chipper too.
> 
> So where is the dividing line? There isn't one!
> 
> Purists will never consider cement in anything, that is fine- you
> can accomplish so much, gaining great strength, and mass, by using
> only clay and organics, even seaweed has been tried.
> 
> Combo of paper/cardboard plus clay is called ' paper adobe' or
> "fidobe', but falls right into the 'cob' camp too!
> 
> I've tested Foxtail plants, Pampas grass, even used a partial bale of
> the "Coccoon brand" newspaper insulation material, dried 6" lawn
> clippings and other 'weeds' in my mixes.. just about anything dry &
> organic can work.
> 
> Charmaine Taylor Publishing
> www.papercrete.com
> 
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