[Cob] Countertop Ideas

[rodger at inbox.com]

The polishing is a good idea... use a smooth stone, or cut a piece of plastic out of a container and start rubbing.  You'll catch on pretty quickly to how to do it... too much pressure moves the material, too little and you don't get a polish.  It's a lot of elbow grease.  I've wondered at using a grinder with a speed control (go slow!) and a soft wheel on it.

You're in a tough spot if ALL the material has veg oil through it.  It likely will never dry completely.  
You might be able to impregnate it with a drying oil like boiled linseed mixed with turpentine.  But beware, most 'boiled' linseed oil just has lead, mercury and other heavy metal drying agents in it... but it works.  Usually by a week it's quite dry and hard.  You can buy organic boiled linseed oil that doesn't have junk in it... but it's horribly expensive.

Those are my only thoughts at this time.  I wish I had better news, it's a beautiful counter.

Rodger

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sales at diamondcard.us
> Sent: Fri, 16 May 2008 00:03:47 +0700
> To: rodger at inbox.com
> Subject: [Cob] Countertop Ideas
> 
> 
>> If you treat it like it's an earthen floor, you might get a
>> fabulous finish.  An actually drying oil like Linseed or Tung, given
>> adequate time to cure, then beeswax does the trick.  It's a tricky
>> process though, and lots of things to know about oils... so do your
>> research.
> 
> I think they used vegetable oil, food color and I think soft pottery
> clay in this counter top mix. Which is why it never has dried over
> many months. I tried to smooth it down with a rounded rock and that
> actually
> has made it glossy in some areas after many months too :)
> 
> I do have linseed oil and beeswax. I tried applying that to some
> rough walls and it never dried quickly either. Some parts are still
> looking greasy months later.
> 
> Are you saying to boil linseed oil and apply it over this surface and
> hope it dries?
> 
> Another issue is this surface is very soft. If you knock into it
> with a pointy instrument you will gouge it. Any heavy item will
> also dent it. This would be a problem in the work area where a
> heavy cafe machine is going, a blender, heavy duty juicer, etc.
> 
> Right now if you walk around the corner and bump into it red color
> gets on your clothing :)
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> S