Deb,

The best and most traditional log chinking is fresh cow manure.   Second
best is clay mud.   All that concrete and mortar stuff is a modern tradition
and more full of it than the original.   It is a good example of how changes
in technology and changes in cultural prejudice come together to rewrite or
forget history.    Just try today asking for a bag of cow shit mortar at the
local builder supply and everyone will "Yuk!!!", but in those good old days,
the stuff was collected for burning in the stove and daubing the logs and
curing skin rashes.   Concrete or mortar and logs just don't have a lot to
say to each other.   They are from different realms and should never
intermarry, except in those magical stacked log walls.

The big advantage of cow dung (aside from having been very accessible right
outside the door in the good old days ) is that it remains flexible and will
swell and shrink just like the logs with the weather.   With its natural
fibre content, it doesn't crack or fall out.   When cured, it does not smell
at all (Ralph will probably say you just get used to it, but I still don't
think I can notice any scent from it, even on humid days).   For best
results, put a few little nails here and there along the log to anchor the
chinking, no matter what kind is used.   Remember, nails were precious to
the impoverished in the old days, so don't use more than they would have.

Moss is second best, for the same reasons as cow dung.  However hanging moss
is often is not a common part of the environment, and if ground moss is
used, it has the disadvantage of bringing live interaction with the logs,
not a happy situation.

Clay mud is a good third, but will crack and collapse and need refreshing
more than manure.   However, if the building is built with cured logs to
start, and has a decently stable bed of foundation rocks, it can last
remarkably long.   The mill I worked on in Kermeos, BC still has some of its
mud chinking in place from 1877.

A common additional strategy when clay was used was to tack some small wood
scraps into or over the joints.

Just take yourself back to the time the log building was built and imagine
what they would have used.   No one poor enough to have to build a log cabin
was going to have the money to waste on a fancy city slicker bag of cement
for all that chinking.  Cement mortar came along with our advanced cultural
mindset and the inability to confront natural biology.    I learned my
lessons in this trade from ancient old timers during my first log
restoration project in Burns Lake, BC.   I've heard it repeated throughout
BC, especially in the cattle country that was our last area to be
homesteaded and where one can still talk with some of the original pioneers
who lived that happy cowshit lifestyle.

cp in bc
(c = cowcrap)


----- Original Message -----
From: "Deb Bledsoe" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2005 4:18 PM
Subject: [BP] log cabin chinking material


> Hello all, hoping you are all well and working!
>
> Will the log construction folks give me some technical specs for
> chinking please? Preferably using products that are widely available and
> not too difficult to use?
>
> We have a late 1800's or early 1900's log building on a south-facing
> mountain, which is uninhabited, and unheated. It has had concrete mortar
> chinking as long as any of the elders can remember. It has been pointed
> many times in the past, but keeps chipping out, even without anyone
> picking at it.
>
> We are in a humid environment, with many freeze-thaw cycles through the
> winter here in southeastern KY. I think the shrinking and swelling of
> the logs must contribute to the problem, as well as the fact that the
> mortar used for chinking in the past seems to have been either plain
> gray cement, or some sort of sand mix. It is patchworked and a LOT of it
> has fallen out or is loose and going to fall out any minute now.
>
> So, what product should we go back with, and how to prep the logs? This
> is all new to me and I would greatly appreciate any advice or referrals
> to reading materials. I will be purchasing materials and supervising a
> crew of volunteers to do the work in the coming weeks.
>
> THANKS
>
> deb "log cabin girl" bledsoe
> Livingston, KY
> www.a-spi.org
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>