mud mud glourious mud!!

[troll]

How the feck does one get a decent section in sand? Quickly? Clear nail varnish? Oh yeah, shillet in Plymouth-plenty lacerations.

[idontdodinos]

There is some nice chalk gravel in east yorks. drains well, clearly defined features (mostly!) and easy to clean back.

Boulder clay, however, is the work of the devil }

dinos

[Pete M]

quote:Originally posted by troll

How the feck does one get a decent section in sand? Quickly? Clear nail varnish? Oh yeah, shillet in Plymouth-plenty lacerations.

Try the sand in an iron foundary casting pit - soaked in whale fat and eminantly sculturable.

[troll]

Gee thanx Pete-whale fat....now theres an image for me to sleep on..sweet dreams.....

[eggbasket]

quote:Originally posted by mercenary

Got to disagree about chalk though. Doesn't clean up very well (It's as bad as gravel) And the black on white thing is a myth.

I have worked on chalk sites where the fills were dark, and the chalk cleaned up fairly easily so it is not wholly a myth.

Cheers,
Eggbasket
Gentleman Adventurer and Antiquarian

Manners maketh the man

[Curator Kid]

I never liked gravel. I only seemed to work on gravel sites that were below the water table. Spent more time bucketting features out than digging them. I did an evaluation on a sand site that had areas well below the water table once too. The trench sides collapsed once it was over half a metre deep and the site looked a right mess.

[Tim]

Brick earth/ loess is the worst. It's either too wet or too dry. Faint features disappear and you have to clean sections/surfaces with a razor sharp plasterers leaf to see anything. When it's wet it's a skating rink. when its dry it's concrete.

Little Tim

[mercenary]

quote:I have worked on chalk sites where the fills were dark, and the chalk cleaned up fairly easily so it is not wholly a myth.

Yeah OK, but it's not always like that.
Up in the godforsaken Wolds perchance? I hate chalk and always have, except where its making up medieval rubble foundations in cities.[:p]

[muddyandcold]

Marine silts found in cambridgeshire/lincolnshire fens are about the nicest to work... Even on the coldest day they are a dream to trowel/hoe. Only negative is that you are in the fens, no cover and freezing your #!$?@&% off. Oh and trying to avoid the yocals - talk about deliverance....