Cob: fibrous reinforcement-grasses, insulation tubes

[Taylor Publishing-DirtCheapBuilder]

goat and cow hair can work, and dog hair too....  a company called NyCon 
makes a fiber called Cont-rol, about $3. a sack, at 1 per one cement  
mixer load....could be used for inclusion in plasters and renders.

this fiber is thinner than human hair, so keep that in mind when you 
look at poly twine, very coarse by comparison.

on a related topic of materials
Ken Kern has used long dry lawn grasses, I was reading one method he 
used...clay and long grasses, rolled up in chicken wire like tubes...he 
was always looking a free and alt materials, for insulation he filled 
long paper tubes with sawdust and laid then in the wall cavity like 
logs..the paper tubes were made by  using a 5" stovepipe as a form, 
taping the paper around it and filling, then sliding the pipe 
out...seems like a lot of work to me...easier would be to take sturdy 
paper grocery bags,  fill with sawdust, staple shut, like a softbrick, 
and lay inside cavity, maybe clay slip or dunk in clay, let dry for 
added fire resistance. (US postal inspectors forgive me!) but I was also 
considering filling the strong cardboard Priority Mail boxes with 
sawdust, seal, paint with a clay slip or dunk, and stack between studs.
in real life I would only use USED/already mailed ones of course, not 
rip off the mail system, don't want to go to federal prison for misuse 
of giv property (g)

Ms. Charmaine  Taylor/ Taylor Publishing
http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com    http://www.papercrete.com
PO Box 375, Cutten (Eureka) CA 95534 707-441-1632    
books at dirtcheapbuilder.com