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Old 19-02-2004, 07:55 PM
Allen
 
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Default [IBC] Ciment Fondu

Hypertufa is a way of making 'artificial' Tufa - which is a light
weight stone that can be easily carved. Hypertufa is typically 1 part
portland cement, then one part peatmoss, and one part sand or
pearlite. It's easy to cast, and can be carved somewhat when green.
It makes a lightweight 'stone' that, after a year or so in the weather
can support mosses, lichens and algae for a natural look.
Ciment Fondu is a high-alumina cement that dries and cures very fast,
making multi-layer design simpler. I couln't find it where i live,
but i've used "wall cement" instead. This is a very tacky cement
that's full of fiberglass shreds for strength. It works well but
you've got to burn off the protruding fibers in your 'stone' .... not
that hard.


"Peter K." wrote in message ...
Can someone tell me what exactly cement fondue is? I know what hypertufa
is, is cf similar?


--
Peter Kulibert zone 4a/5b




"dalecochoy" wrote in message
news:002201c3f67c$57aae120$0430fea9@dalespc...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bart Thomas"
Subject: [IBC] Ciment Fondu


Allen, et al.:
I have been following this thread with interest because I had never

heard
of
Ciment Fondu until noting its use in the projects from this beautiful

book.

Bart,
I'm suprised. I thought Chase had done some work with it.
If you have the BCI "Indices" you could search it. I remember several

years
Back when Bill V. had speakers ( Bill Jordan) who did some Ciment

Fondue
work. I remembr they made a tall mountain that my late friend Mel Tellus
bought in the Saturday night auction. I'm sure these pics are in the

old
mags.
Bill, what issue?
Shortly after that Brussel began making/selling many sizes of slabs made
from it.
My old business partner and I got a couple Japanese imported fiberglass
slabs and made silicone molds of them and sold them for several years

until
sales dropped off. I thought Brussel still made them, but, perhaps not

if
not in his catalog anymore. He had some huge ones.His sales of them

probably
started to slow down also and since they were labor intensive......they

are
dropped.
My buddy and I got our ciment fondue from a dealer in Cleveland and, as

Mike
Persianno stated, it was made by Le Farge. It was pretty expensive stuff
compaired to mortar., 90 pound bags as I recall, could be colored easily
with mortar colors you can get at any supply store.
I still have a couple "scoop pots" I made from it over window screen

forms.
I keep moving them around in my pot shelves in my tea house :)
I made several mountains in the past which I donated for auction at some
shows. . Somewhere I have pics of these. I used the window screen forms

(
you could also use hardware cloth/chicken wire but you got nice bends

with
window screen.) and then they were made ala paper mache' by cutting

strips
of fiberglass auto body repai cloth, soaking them in ciment fondue and
laying on. After covering you could apply several coats of CF with a

brush
over next few days.
In using the silicone molds we simply covered an existing fiberglass
imported slab with mold release and used caulk guns with 100% silicone

caulk
and the same fiberglass auto body strips ( for strength) to cover the

slab.
After it set it pulled off and we had a mold that you could lay over a

small
pile of sand that could be arranged to different shapes however you

liked.
Regards,
Dale Cochoy, Wild Things Bonsai Studio, Hartville, Ohio
http://www.WildThingsBonsai.Com
Specializing in power wood carving tools.
Yakimono no Kokoro bonsai pottery of hand-built stoneware


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