about your job.....

["George Graham" <georgergraham@zzzzzzzzzzz>]

Simon,
Thanks for the great description of how to make a sphere.  Being able to put
the process into words that I could understand makes you a fine teacher. I
hope your students appreciate  you . If I were going to attempt a ball, I
would lay it out exactly as you describe.  I figured out how to layout off
the floor on my own because it ended being the simplest and easiest way to
go about it. If I had gone to a class such as yours, I would have save a lot
of time.

After I had worked in granite for 6 years I came across a book called
"Direct Carving In Stone" by Mark Batten. It was written in 1957, and
confirmed all that I had learned by trial and error. This book is the best
I've found for describing the old stone working techniques. The web site you
gave is to the same museum I visited so long ago. The balls were only
described as apprentice work.

Learning to use the pitching tools and hammer took some time, but as you
said, after you hit yourself enough, and skin your knuckles toomuch, one
does learn to pitch granite. I've worked with a few people and tried to
teach them how to swing a cutters hammer. The best discription I could come
up with  is that it has to be completly relaxed, and to let the hammer do
the work. Of course, when you relax that much,missing hurts a bit more.

Thanks,
George Graham