wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm tempted to say that washed sand is what you get when you add a dash
of washing up liguid to the mortar to make it easier to work. Really
it means that there is little or no clay and silt mixed in with the
sand. This is not neccessarily an advantage. When making mortar with
sand and lime, as oposed to Portland cement, a sound mortar can be
obtained with less lime if there is some silt and clay in the
aggregate.

Limonite it not a kind of clay but is a hydrated iron oxide, usually
amorphous or cryptocrystalline and often closely combined with
colloidal silica, phosphates, clay minerals and organic decomposition
products. It's a product of the weathering of iron bearing minerals
and is responsible for mush of the yellow/brown colour of sand.

It's the only time I've seen oxides freely suspended in water, which
suggests the particles must either be incredibly small, or they are
balanced
by some or all of the combination products above.
If the oxide content of limonite were higher it wouild presumably have a
commercial value as an ochre.

Geological pedant.
Any geologist is better than none.


--
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
It has removed 5096 spam emails to date.
Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
Try www.SPAMfighter.com for free now!