During a round of "beat the bulldozer" last weekend we managed to
salvage some c1900 "dust pressed" tile manufactured by the American
Encaustic Tile Co. At that time the company had been lured to Zanesville
Ohio from NY and reportedly were among the largest tile manufacturers in
the world.

The tile on the hearth extension came up reasonably well, but the
surround was actually made up of three panels which were applied to the
masonry. They seem to be a plaster of Paris type material for the
structural part. It's fairly soft and rubs off on you fingers. The tile
is then attached with some kind of grainy cementitious material that's
pretty tenacious.

Since the tiles are really fragile we're looking for suggestion on how
to separate the tiles from the plaster(?) panels. Any ideas or previous
experience out there?

Rudy

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