Primitive Technology: Wood Ash Cement & Fired Brick Hut
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Published 2022-05-05
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About This Video:
I built a hut from fired clay bricks and mortared them together with a cement made from wood ash left over from the firing process. When I developed wood ash cement years ago in a previous video, it was in response to the need of a cement made from material other than lime stone, which is absent in my location. Wood ash was suitable because it contains calcium oxide, the active cementitious material for making mortar. I made clay bricks and fired them in a kiln made previously. Then I collected the wood ash and made them into pellets storing them for later use. When it was time to make the mortar, I put the pellets in the kiln and fired them. Here it's important to note that the ash needs to be fired at a high temperature with oxygen, ordinary ash from a camp fire won't work as is because they don't get hot enough. It needs to be pelletized and fired again in a kiln before use. I mixed the fired ash pellets with sand (1:3 ratio by volume) and used it to mortar the bricks together. It's important to use a trowel (flat piece of wood here) instead of bare hands to handle the mortar due to lye burning the skin (I got mild lye burns on my fingers). The ash left over from firing the bricks was enough to mortar those same bricks together. The hut was 2x2 m and 2 m high at the gables. Wooden beams were placed onto the gables to form the roof and secured in place with mortar. Then I made barrel roof tiles and lay them onto these beams. The whole project took 6 and a half months to build. The hut sheds rain well and the mortar is water proof (won't dissolve in water), surviving many rainstorms even before the roof was up. The main take away from this video is to always look for a way to take a waste material (wood ash) and make it into a resource (cement).
About Primitive Technology:
Primitive technology is a hobby where you build things in the wild completely from scratch using no modern tools or materials. These are the strict rules: If you want a fire, use a fire stick - An axe, pick up a stone and shape it - A hut, build one from trees, mud, rocks etc. The challenge is seeing how far you can go without utilizing modern technology. I do not live in the wild, but enjoy building shelter, tools, and more, only utilizing natural materials. To find specific videos, visit my playlist tab for building videos focused on pyrotechnology, shelter, weapons, food & agriculture, tools & machines, and weaving & fiber.
#PrimitiveTechnology #WoodAshCement #FiredBrickHut
All Comments (21)
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In one of the Warhammer 40k science-fiction books there's a scene I've always liked. One of the characters is standing at the centre of a human space empire. Within the most important palace on Earth. And finds himself in a museum wing called "The Hall of Victories". Which is cherishing the accomplishments of human race in the distant space-faring future. It contains a variety of technological achievements. Some military, most scientific. Such as the first stable human cloning formula. The first Titan rover. The first faster-than-light navigation circuit, etc. But in the middle of the museum is the centrepiece. A display case containing several shards of dented clay. Forming the outline of some sort of bowl. Hundreds of thousands of years old. The character expresses confusion at the placement. Pointing out that it's so simple a child could make it. But another character explains why it's so crucial. That without that bowl, all the other museum exhibits wouldn't exist. That at some point in the unrecorded past, one of our primitive ancestors noticed that a type of mud hardened when left in the sun. And he or she decided that they were going to MAKE something. That our journey as a species had those tentative first steps! Primitive Technology feels like a celebration of those steps.
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if there's one thing i'm glad for not having changed on Youtube, it's the contagious feeling of willpower this channel provides.
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With the way the housing market is going, I am very here for this.
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You really took "I'm going to build my own house in the woods." to a whole other level. The time you spent really shows, this is quite impressive.
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I feel so lucky to see so many hours of work compressed into a 13 minute video.
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Was wondering when he would admit that his poor hands were being torn up by that mortar. I love this guy. He's a magic man.
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Mad respect to this guy for not faking his vids
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make sure you enable captions! he explains what he does and it adds a lot of life to the video.
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Dude just built a waterproof brick and mortar house, completely from the earth, with his bare hands. The time, mental dedication and physical effort required for this video is absolutely immense. Amazing.
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It's always incredible to watch but building an entire brick structure out in the wild with nothing but the material you created yourself is truly remarkable.
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You created each brick from baked clay to make it hard and created your own cement using primitive technology, to build a house, you are really good, congratulations on your project's success.
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Videos like these are always my preference. The people building these naturally-sourced structures are far more impressive to me than CEOs or celebrities. Building from the ground up with your bare hands is connecting to the way of our ancestors. It's what we humans are actually supposed to do and it's what we benefit from. We're all meant to build and create with our bare hands, gather what's in nature, and live sustainably. It's what centers us and makes us content despite the hard work. This is who we are, and I wish I had the opportunity to do this as I live in the suburbs.
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Okay this might be John's most impressive video to date. This is the most in-depth, weather-resistant shelter I've seen him build. This must've been a major project. Very rewatchable video. As a reminder, if you want to see John's descriptions and commentary on what he's doing in each video, turn on closed captioning.
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Always a breath of fresh air to see this guy's videos. No talking, no filler or bloat, just one guy showing off primitive buildings and techniques.
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There are many fake videos pretending to be doing things like this but this channel is genuine. I salute this gentlemen for his skill, endurance and determination.
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I find videos such as these to be very calming and relaxing. I am not the outdoors type, having spent a career in the military. That was more outdoor experience for a lifetime. I could actually spend short periods such as these to relax, provided I keep in some protective measures I'm place and readily available.😁
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YouTube is a better place when you're making videos mate, great stuff!
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I am so happy that he returned. These videos give me joy.
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I am so glad that I bought your book. If everything goes down, and things fall apart, at least I have access to the skills I need to make structures and survive. Now I just need to work on your levels of stoicism.
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I've had those sores quite a few times from working with thinset/grout, they can be surprisingly painful for how small they are. Great channel and information 👍
