Now we are talking. I attended a US Heritage workshop last year and John
Speweik briefly discussed lime putty versus hydrated lime, but never really
went into detail as to why lime putty is better than hydrated lime. I also
attended a workshop with Virginia Lime Works, and Jimmy Price was not the
least bit concerned with adding hydrated lime to your lime putty to "stretch
out" your putty, or even using hydrated lime mortar to fill in any out of
site voids so as to not interfere with the matching of the original mortar.

Virginia Lime Works is hosting the American Lime Conference in Amherst,
Virginia. There are plans for six lime experts to attend the conference and
this is one question that I will be asking each one of them. I will inform
all of you the feed back that I receive when I return.

Steven Elkins
Savannah Grey Restoration