[Cob] building with stones, was: Re: composition of clay mortar for urbanite

[Predrag Cvetkovic]

Ron has sent a comment to me:
>I'm having a hard time seeing how quicklime's reaction to water could
>generate enough to melt quartz. But should add I'm not a chemist or
>geologist. But always fetl that quartz was pretty hard [tough material]




I wonder about quartz too. As I've found, its melting point is about 1600 C
and lime slaking temperature is only about 160-210F (max. 100C). What can be
the role of quartz? Or we can omit it and make hot lime mortar:

"Hot Lime Mortar (only suitable for building) is produced by adding
Quicklime (Lump Lime) to damp sand. It has small lumps of lime in it, which
can often be seen in old mortars. It is good for general building but should
not be used for plastering/rendering or pointing. " (from the web)

After your message, I found an interesting link about lime:
http://www.cheresources.com/quicklime.shtml

best regards
Predrag