Noticed the same thing at limestone used at one doorway at MIT, iron colored
seams throughout a few pieces.

-----Original Message-----
From: JRhodes [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 1999 4:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Limestone/Iron


Re: ][<en Follett's, "Is there iron in limestone?"

When working on St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, I encountered several
seams,"veins" or "inclusions" (or is that "mal-occlusions"?) which appeared
as shallow weathered grooves across an otherwise intact piece of sculpted
limestone from which oozed the tell-tale brown-orange stain of iron from
within.  Not a split in the stone, not a joint,  not a buried anchor, but
simply a spot where iron trapped within disolved and made it to the
surface.  Sometimes I've seen the iron as a "pimple" on the surface of the
stone.  In this case, nothing to worry about, just a disfigurment which by
luck didn't appear on some Apostle's face.  --Jim