Is Indiana Limestone extremely soft

["George Graham" <georgergraham@zzzzzzzzzzz>]

The first thing you need to do is verify that its Indiana Limestone.  If you
use a magnifying glass,you will see that all the fine particles are actually
fossils. The larger fossils can be identified with the naked eye, but this
kind of limestone is made up of 100% fossils. If you have never worked with
it you could be fooled by sandstone that has a very similar color and
softness, and is commonly used in buildings. That's the good news.

The better news is that Indiana Limestone is a fantastic stone to carve.
Although it is very soft and easy to carve, and looks like it might just
crumble away , it won't.  In. limestone will carve to a very sharp and clean
edge. With good sharp chisels, you can carve directly to your finished
design. Then you can file it with a woodrasp, and regular bastard files. I
do most of the carving with a point, and then use a flat tooth chisel for
the majority of the carving. Then go to a rasp, and bastard file. If you
want to polish, just do it as you would with Georgia Marble. Except that it
will be a lot easier. It will polish up fine, and has a subtle wood grain
look that comes out when finished.

It is much softer than Georgia Marble, but considerably harder then
soapstone and the Colorado Alabaster I've worked with.  It also has the
interesting quality of getting much harder the longer it is exposed to air.

When it is freshly quarried you can cut it with a carpenters hand saw, but
it hardens up quickly as it dries out, and makes a good exterior building
stone.

Limestone is a gereral name that doesn't help when you are trying to learn
about the carving qualities of a stone. The limestone here in western NY,
and what David spoke of in Wisconsin, is too hard and brittle to bother
with. Fortunately, In. Limestone is the exact opposite. After working with
Georgia marble, you will really enjoy getting into Indiana limestone.

Go Walter Arnold's web site to see what can be done with this stone when a
master stone carver goes to work.
Have fun,
George Graham