hand carving memorials

[Karen Bereza <humbledesigns@xxxxxxx>]

Thanks George and Maureen for all your wonderful advice. I
have only carved letters in slate so far and only with
mallet and chisel (which is what I fully intend to continue
with). It was a project for my carving class and I did an
old German alphabet, with the letters all hand drawn, scaled
larger than the originals I had to work from. Many of the
points you made Maureen, about tradition and how things were
done in "the old days" are what my instructor focuses on (he
was trained in Weymouth, England).

We learned V-cut lettering, but I look forward to trying
raised as well. He is currently working on a memorial from a
very northern soap stone that is absolutely beautiful. One
of our problems here is shipping costs, but our closest
quarry near Winnipeg, Manitoba is looking at starting to
carry some Indiana limestone so perhaps that will be a good
one to try in the near future. There also is (apparently)
and abandoned marble quarry somewhere to the northwest of us
that has some beautiful red marble that we want to look
into.

On the subject of dust masks - I hate them. I know they are
necessary but I keep thinking that somebody should invent
something that could filter the air to your nose but leave
your mouth free for blowing the dust from the surface you
are working on. Any thoughts (remembering that I am working
only mallet and chisel, no power tools, so limited dust)?

Thanks again,
Karen