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+--- Thread: Looking for some sources! (/showthread.php?tid=5584)
Looking for some sources! - jeffpinto - 22nd March 2015
I'm doing a spot of research into mollusc shells, and one thing is frustrating me, so I thought there has to be a BAJRite or two who can give me some pointers.
I *know* that oyster shell has been used as a construction material in the past, and not just for making lime or mortar, but the shell itself used as a structural element, e.g. a packing shim; but I can't for the life of me find a printed reference to this going on.
If, by any chance, anybody reading this has encountered such a thing (perhaps in a building survey) and knows that it has gone into writing (grey lit. report or publication), please please please let me know!
Looking for some sources! - BAJR - 23rd March 2015
On it...
Looking for some sources! - GnomeKing - 23rd March 2015
jeffpinto Wrote:I'm doing a spot of research ....(emphasis added)
I *know* that oyster shell has been used as a construction material in the past, and not just for making lime or mortar, but the shell itself used as a structural element, e.g. a packing shim; but I can't for the life of me find a printed reference to this going on.... please please please let me know!
say WHAT ?!!! - are you serious ? you have never read "Bodgit&Bashit : a general buidlers guide", or "101 Other Uses for That Mollusc", or BAR:762 "A Worldwide Typology of Orthodox and Unorthodox Methods of 'Shimmy-ing', or even BAR:35 "A Worldwide Typology of Orthodox And Unorthodox Mollusc Disposals" !!?
I jest of course (aha- ha ha); so i will try to give it a more deserving seriousness:
As somebody with direct experience of building and using shims during construction projects, a couple of things spring to mind;
1 - anything to hand that will not rot can be very much sufficient.
2- shells are relatively predictable, but usefully variable, in size (much like a bag of shims from Screwfix), and can be broken easily to length (ditto)- much as 'modern' brick can be chipped easily to size with minimal effort....stone can be hard to chip in the same easy way for 'packers/fillers/shims', and materials in 'pre-modern' bricks also mean they don't chip in the same way........ therefore shell could be useful in those roles in ad hoc ways.
3-shims are used to maneuver heavy objects in various ways - shells could make useful shims under heavy objects being shifted into final positions (eg large stone blocks, tight fitting beams etc), but would be crushed in the process.
4-i dunno - maybe somewhere there is a local tradition of using whole shell (flat) as part of layered bonding in thick mortar, daub, or similar non-masonry construction - perhaps it even looks nice
So yes - perhaps shell is useful as shims - but it is probably very ad hoc.
Anyway, what kind of Research is this ?? - what is the bigger picture? - because otherwise, Your research IS to go find that "printed source".
I am sure many here will be fascinated by whatever results you come up with, so please do come back and tell us.
(blessings)
Looking for some sources! - BAJR - 23rd March 2015
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BAJRarchaeology/10152663611851861/?ref=notif¬if_t=group_comment
Has some help...
including this picture:
![[Image: 10313059_10206513117770401_3184889485899...e=55721746]](https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/p160x160/10313059_10206513117770401_31848894858990376_n.jpg?oh=ba44257ec625e9bfdfc0b895bf958f42&oe=55721746)