So I had my first experience with cob today. Very cool, I can't wait to see what it's like when it dries. I actually made an adobe brick and a pile of cob. I really like the adobe concept. It seems like the cob would cure much quicker. And once dried you can use it immediately or years later. That kind of modularity makes a lot of sense to me. Of course if you want a bunch of curvlinear walls or furniture straight up cob is the way to go. I can see uses for both approaches.
If one of these first test batches proves durable, I am gonna cob the crap out of this stove. I've been reading up on the lime wash thing. First, how cool is that? You are basically building a cave wall! As the lime carbonates in the air it is literally producing a thin layer of limestone. That just blows me away. Graham - you say its the way they do it up where you're from but you think it's a dead end Matt? What's a guy to think?
Oh, my daughter helped me and probably said "this is fun" three or four times. When I said it was called cob it clicked with her - she had read about how they would build cob houses in the Little House on the Prairie books. She never knew what the heck they were talking about when they said they built the little cottage out of cob!
So, good learning and good fun.