The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of
civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using
stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct
many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts,
cathedrals,caches and cities in a wide variety of cultures. Famous
products of stonemasonry include the Taj Mahal, Cusco's Incan Wall,
Easter Island's statues, the Egyptian Pyramids, Angkor Wat,
Tihuanaco, Tenochtitlan the Iranian Persepolis, the Greek
Parthenon, Stonehenge, and Chartres Cathedral and of course, the
Stone wall at Highgrove.
Quarrymen split the rock, and extract the resulting blocks of
stone from the ground.
Sawyers cut these rough blocks into cubes, to required size with
diamond-tipped saws.
Banker masons are workshop based, and specialize in carving stones
into intricate geometrical shapes required by a building's design.
They can produce anything from stones with simple chamfers to
tracery windows, detailed mouldings and the more classical
architectural building masonry. When working a stone from a sawn
block, the mason ensures that the stone is bedded in the right way,
so the finished work sits in the building in the same orientation
as it was formed on the ground. The basic tools, methods and skills
of the banker mason has existed as a trade for thousands of
years.
Carvers cross the line from craft to art, and use their artistic
ability to carve stone into foliage, figures, animals or abstract
designs.
Fixer masons specialize in the fixing of stones onto buildings,
using lifting tackle, and traditional lime mortars and grouts,
sometimes modern cements, mastics and epoxy resins are used usually
on specialist applications such as stone cladding, metal fixings
from simple dowels and cramps to specialised single application
fixings are also used. The precise tolerances necessary make this a
highly skilled job. Memorial masons or monumental masons carve
gravestones and inscriptions.
The modern stonemason undergoes comprehensive training, both in the
classroom and in the working environment, hands on skill is
complimented by intimate knowledge of each stone type, its
application and best uses, and how to work and fix each stone in
place, he may be skilled and competent to carry out one or all of
the various branches of stonemasonry. In some areas the trend is
towards specialization, in other areas towards adaptability.
Igneous stones--
Granite is one of the hardest stones, and requires such different
techniques to sedimentary stones that it is virtually a separate
trade. With great persistence, simple mouldings can and have been
carved into granite, for example in many Cornish churches and the
city of Aberdeen. Generally, however, it is used for purposes that
require its strength and durability, such as kerbstones,
countertops, flooring, and breakwaters. Igneous stone ranges from
very soft rocks such as pumice and scoria to somewhat harder rocks
such as tuff and hard rocks such as obsidian, granite and
basalt.
Metamorphic.
Marble has traditionally been used for carving statues, and for
facing many Byzantine and Renaissance Italian buildings. The
traditional home of the marble industry is the area around Carrara
in Italy, from where a bright white marble is extracted in vast
quantities.
Slate is a popular choice of stone for memorials and
inscriptions, as its fine grain and hardness means it leaves
details very sharp. Meanwhile, its tendency to split into thin
plates has made it a popular roofing material.
Sedimentary.
Many of the world's most famous buildings have been built of
sedimentary stone, from Durham Cathedral to St Peter's in Rome.
There are two main types of sedimentary stone used in masonry work,
limestones and sandstones. Examples of limestones include Bath and
Portland stone. Yorkstone and Sydney sandstone are well-known
sandstones.
Types of stonemasonry are:
Rubble Masonry
When roughly dressed stones are laid in a mortar the result is a
stone rubble masonry, sometimes there are gaps left in the walls
which are ideal for placing hidden items in.
Ashlar Masonry
well arranged and cut stones put in cement mortar.
Training
Traditionally medieval stonemasons served a seven-year
apprenticeship. A similar system still operates today.
A modern apprenticeship lasts four years. This combines on-site
learning through personal experience, the experience of the
tradesmen and college work where apprentices are given an overall
experience of the building, hewing and theory work involved in
masonry. In some areas colleges offer courses which teach not only
the manual skills but also related fields such as drafting and
blueprint reading or construction conservationism. Electronic
Stonemasonry training resources enhance traditional delivery
techniques --
1. Hands-on workshops are a good way to learn about stonemasonry
also.
2. Those wishing to become stonemasons should have little problem
working at heights, possess reasonable hand-eye co-ordination, be
moderately physically fit, and have basic mathematical ability.
Most of these things can be developed while learning.
Tools---
The foreground tool with serrated blades is a cockscomb, cock's
comb or stonemason's drag, used on soft limestone. Stonemasons use
a wide variety of tools to handle and shape stone blocks (ashlar)
and slabs into finished articles. The basic tools for shaping the
stone are a mallet, chisels, and a metal straight edge. With these
one can make a flat surface - the basis of all stone masonry.
Chisels-- come in a variety of sizes and shapes, dependent upon
the function for which they are being used. There are different
chisels for different materials and sizes of material being worked,
for removing large amounts of material and for putting a fine
finish on the stone.
Mixing mortar is normally done today with mortar mixers which
usually use a rotating drum or rotating paddles to mix the
mortar.
The masonry trowel is used for the application of the mortar
between and around the stones as they are set into place. Filling
in the gaps (joints) with mortar is referred to as pointing.In this
example of Stonewalling there is one hole thats unpointed, stash is
there. Pointing in smaller joints can be accomplished using tuck
pointers, pointing trowels, and margin trowels, among other
tools.
At least one tool bears the name of the tradesmen that use it,
and that is the Stonemason's hammer. This hammer can be used in
place of a chisel in certain circumstances. The hammer can also be
used to make shims and chinks while holding a small stone in one
hand and striking it with the hammer.
Stonemasons use a Lewis together with a crane or winch to hoist
building stones into place.
Today power tools such as compressed-air chisels, abrasive
spinners and angle grinders are much used: these save time and
money, but are hazardous and require just as much skill as the hand
tools that they augment. But many of the basic tools of
stonemasonry have remained virtually the same throughout vast
amounts of time, even thousands of years.
History--
Stonemasonry is one of the earliest trades in civilisation's
history. During the time of the Neolithic Revolution and
domestication of animals, people learned how to use fire to create
quicklime, plasters, and mortars. They used these to fashion homes
for themselves with mud, straw, or stone, and masonry was born.
This cache is a micro with a small logbook, bring your own writing
instrument, its laid in the wall, has a small "tool" for ease of
extraction.
The Ancients heavily relied on the stonemason to build the most
impressive and long lasting monuments to their civilisations. The
Egyptians built their pyramids, the civilizations of Central
American had their step pyramids, the Persians their palaces, the
Greeks their temples, and the Romans their public works and wonders
(See Roman Architecture). Among the famous ancient stonemasons is
Sophroniscus, the father of Socrates, who was a stone-cutter.
Castle building was an entire industry for the medieval
stonemasons. When the Western Roman Empire fell, building in
dressed stone decreased in much of Western Europe, and there was a
resulting increase in timber-based construction. Stone work
experienced a resurgence in the 9th and 10th centuries in Europe,
and by the 12th century religious fervour resulted in the
construction of thousands of impressive churches and cathedrals in
stone across Western Europe.
Medieval stonemasons' skills were in high demand, and members of
the guild, gave rise to three classes of stonemasons: apprentices,
journeymen, and master masons. Apprentices were indentured to their
masters as the price for their training, journeymen had a higher
level of skill and could go on journeys to assist their masters,
and master masons were considered freemen who could travel as they
wished to work on the projects of the patrons. During the
Renaissance, the stonemason's guild admitted members who were not
stonemasons, and eventually evolved into the Society of
Freemasonry; fraternal groups which observe the traditional culture
of stonemasons, but are not typically involved in modern
construction projects.
A medieval stonemason would often carve a personal symbol onto
their block to differentiate their work from that of other
stonemasons. This also provided a simple ‘quality
assurance’ system.
The Renaissance saw stonemasonry return to the prominence and
sophistication of the Classical age. The rise of the Humanist
philosophy gave people the ambition to create marvelous works of
art. The centre stage for the Renaissance would prove to be Italy,
where city-states such as Florence erected great structures,
including the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Fountain of
Neptune, and the Laurentian Library which was planned and built by
Michelangelo Buonarroti, a famous stonemason of the
Renaissance.
When Europeans settled the Americas, they brought the
stonemasonry techniques of their respective homelands with them.
Settlers used what materials were available, and in some areas
stone was the material of choice. In the first waves, building
mimicked that of Europe, to eventually be replaced by unique
architecture later on.
In the 20th century, stonemasonry saw its most radical changes
in the way the work is accomplished. Prior to the first half of the
century, most heavy work was executed by draft animals or human
muscle power. With the arrival of the internal combustion engine,
many of these hard aspects of the trade have been made simpler and
easier. Cranes and forklifts have made moving and laying heavy
stones relatively easy for the stonemasons. Motor powered mortar
mixers have saved much in time and energy as well. Compressed-air
powered tools have made working of stone less time-intensive.
Petrol and electric powered abrasive saws can cut through stone
much faster and with more precision than chiseling alone.
Carbide-tipped chisels can stand up to much more abuse than the
steel and iron chisels made by blacksmiths of old.
Cache is delicate, please handle with care.Probably better to
extract log strip with tweezers..every cacher should carry them
-;)