Rushmore carvers

["George Graham" <georgergraham@zzzzzzzzzzz>]

Bill,
I've been to Mt. Rushmore and saw the film of the men carving the stone. It
is amazing to see what can be done when people commit to a project.
What I remember of the film was that the men were using very large hammers
and were able to use their body weight to control the tool. I think is all
about having enough air pressure to cut and crush the stone, and still be
able to control the tool, and also having a heavy enough air hammer to
absorb the vibration and deliver the hammering to the chisel and not the
user. To do all that and be swinging from a bosons chair suspended a couple
of hundred feet in the air is ,,, amazing! I hope to see the film again and
look closer at the details.

An interesting side note to this is that Victor Borglum hired only local men
with no knowledge of stone work. They were cowmen and ranchers, who Borglum
trained and directed. The project of carving Mt. Rushmore took many years
and had quite  a few interruptions of work because the funding would run
out, yet the locals stuck with the project until it was completed. They
wanted to see it done  and were proud of what they were doing.

Just a few miles from Mt. Rushmore is the Crazy Horse monument that is being
carved by Borglum's children. The size is stupendous. The complete Rushmore
sculpture could fit under Crazy Horse's outstretched arm.

George Graham