hand carving memorials

["George Graham" <georgergraham@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Karen,

I've been carving and lettering monuments for 25 years, ( god, that makes me
feel old! ) and am glad to share some thoughts with you.

Your concern about  horizontal lettering holding water is logical, but only
relevant if you are lettering a very absorbent or fractured stone. If the
edges crumble or fall apart during the carving process, I abandon the stone
before any more time and effort is wasted.

Your question and worry about holding water goes to the heart of what people
want when they buy a  stone. People want a stone that will last and not be
damaged by the weather,, forever! Working with tried and true stones
commonly found in cemeteries is a safe way to start. I've looked in many old
sections of cemeteries on the east coast. The oldest and most time damaged
memorials are made from Vermont Marble that was the most easily quarried,
and carvable stone of the time. Its a beautiful white stone that was very
popular. Unfortunately after 100+ years of exposure all the sharp edges are
gone, and the stone carves like a block of sugar, hence the name sugar
stone. In some cases the fine delicate carving have washed away, and the
names and dates are lost. All these problems with old vermont marble have
given marble a very bad and undeserved reputation in the monument industry.
There is a huge varity of great limestone and marble that holds up for
centuries.

I've worked with Tennessee Pink marble, Georgia marble, Alabama marble and
Danby marble from Vermont. Italian marble also deserves its great
reputation, and its been time tested! When you carve a good hard marble, the
chips can't be crumbled to sand between your fingers. Also the stone will
ring like a bell when you hit it. If you hear a thud, watch out! Indiana

Limestone is also a good stone. It is used extensively in outdoor building
applications, and is found in many cemeteries, and carves extremely well.
The National Cathedral in Washington DC, is 100% Indiana Limestone. You
won't have any problem finding good stone to letter! I almost forgot,
Slate,,, is great!

Learning how to carve and letter is the main thing you need to master. Look
at the fine craftsmanship demonstrated by the old masters and try to
duplicate it. The old sections of cemeteries are a great place to study fine
hand cut lettering. I prefer to use a combination of old and new technology
to do my work. Diamond wheels in a die grinder, carborundum wheels, carbide
chisels with air hammers and simple steel and wooden mallets all come into
play. If you have the facility to work in, access to a compressor and proper
dust control, using the high speed tools can save you a lot of time.

Sandblasting skills are important also. But if you are just starting out and
don't have a life time collection of carving stuff, just get the basic hand
tools and start practicing on a good hard marble, the old fashioned way, by
hand. There is no better way to learn the stone and master the techniques.
If you learn how to carve  hand cut v-sunk , square-raised and round-raised
letters in marble and granite, you can carve anything! Then try old english
lettering , just for fun.

First select a stone to learn on, get the basic chisels, carbide tipped
lettering chisels, a mallet and a dust mask. Remember the first and most
important rule of lettering, SHARP CHISELS. If you can't trim your
fingernails, then your are crunching instead of cutting.

You asked a simple question on a very large subject that everyone has
different views on. I hope the others on the list  will add to this subject.
Its a great question you've asked. Keep on asking questions as you run into
problems, you will!

Good luck
George Graham