Don't know about the US . But I did see a video of some old timer quarrymen doing that in the UK.
Limestone
Was just reminded of a trip to Oamaru in New Zealand and did a historical tour of the first abbatoir to send a refrigerated shipment of keat to England. Oamaru is famous for its limestone and I was suprised to learn they cut it with 2 man or single crosscut saws originally used to clear bush. Was this also common in the US and Canada?
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Don't know if we have anything soft enough. Would that be more like chalk?
Fresh limestone is generally very soft. It carbonates upon exposure to air and hardens.
Agreed. Some limestone at least. Sandstone is the same, after the sap leaves it hardens a lot. Like Karl I've never seen it here but I have seen it in old books. A teacher was telling me that when he was in Italy he did a tour of a marble quarry and there were 3 guys working to extract blocks. 2 each held one end of a wire and the 3rd guy sprinkled sand on the cut as they moved the wire back and forth. Slow but it worked....slowly.....very....very....slowly.
Fresh limestone is generally very soft. It carbonates upon exposure to air and hardens.
These guys are not horribly far from me. They invented the huge machine to quarry the limestone in a cavern. Tremendous number of benefits,one is they can quarry 365 days a yr. Reason being,temp remains a constant 55 deg. Indiana limestone does get harder as time goes on but I would not say it is ever soft. I will say this,just quarried it contains a huge amount of "sap" water. So these guys can harvest stone all yr. around,store it in cavern,take it outside when spring hits. Their competitors generally have to shut down in winter,reason being,the sap will freeze,crack and or cause the stone to spall.
http://www.elliottstone.com/
Like brick, the smallest a piece of quarried limestone will ever be is when it leaves the quarry/kiln for brick. It swells, it carbonates, and it changes color. It varies in hardness from chalk to already fully carbonated (we call that "lueders" around here, I don't know why) when quarried,
Like brick, the smallest a piece of quarried limestone will ever be is when it leaves the quarry/kiln for brick. It swells, it carbonates, and it changes color. ,
I do know that brick is at its all time smallest the second it leaves the kiln,for it is its driest then. As it gets wetted and exposed to the weather it does "grow". Some concepts that sound great but in all practicality would be not be practical to pull off advocate brick "acclimating"for two years before laying to afford the most stable wall.
Regarding limestone,since it contains much sap at quarrying and does harden as time goes on and hardening would seem to be a result of condensing,what would cause it to enlarge or "grow" ? Would the carbonating be only to the same depth of lime in a mortar joint since it is dependent on contact with air ?
It grows because it is released from the pressure of being in the ground.
:thumbsup:It grows because it is released from the pressure of being in the ground.
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