ok walter, what is "pitching"?

["George Graham" <georgergraham@zzzzzzzzzzz>]

Edie,
I'll jump in and follow John's excellent description of pitching.
I used to be a full time stonecutter in the monument industry for 20 years.
I've finally realized my goal of being a full time independent sculptor 2
years ago, so I do very little pitching anymore.

The video of the tools show on Trow and Holden's web site give a very bare
bone explanation of the tools and how to use them. What you see is a cutter
really holding back, for fear of seriously hurting the camera person. The
speed and efficency that granite can be methodically removed has to be seen
to be appreciated. The only place you can see this being done on a regular
basis is at a shop in one of the granite centers around the country. Barre
VT, Elberton Georgia, are the best places I know of on the east coast.

I compare pitching to flint knapping. The tools are very specialized for
working granite, mainly working on a sawed , flat surface. That's when they
are the most effective. I'm sure you noticed how thick and stout the tools
are. They have to be , to be able to withstand the pounding, absorb the
vibrations and shock that would sting your hand, and let the energy from a
hammerblow go directly into the stone.

Pitching tools are also only as good as the saw man who cuts quarry blocks
into slabs. If the q-blocks are cut so the grain of the stone is running
perpendicular to the direction the cutter is working, really bad things
happen . This is especially true in granite.

One of the few things I miss about my old job was pitching. There is a
rhythm and pace to pitching a slab of granite that is not like any other
kind of stone work. When the stone rings like a bell and the flakes are
flying off, and you have learned how not to hit your knuckles, at the end of
the day its sometimes hard to tell which is the most satisfying, a row of
finished monuments, ready for lettering, or a pile of big clean flakes. I
hope you get a chance to see pitching done right someday.

Last year I did some pitching for about 4 hours. As my elbow and shoulder
ached for the rest of the day, I thought to myself, that was not as fun as I
remembered it to be!

All this is sort of ancient history for me, and as you know I like to
chatter on, but I'll stop.
George Graham