Sandblasting vs. lettercutting by hand

[maureen thompson <maureen@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Oh John, you know it takes a good thread like this one
to get me back into the email world. And thank God the
baby's asleep because I'd have to multitask in order
to say the few major points that come to mind. There
are a handful of people (in this country) that carve
granite regularly. It takes a steel hammer and a
(green) carbide chisel rather than a wood or zinc
mallet and a (blue) chisel. The colors are given to
the chisel by the company to grade the hardness.
Cutting 200 letters a day seems like a lot; I've never
heard of that. On a good day, I was cutting seven an
hour. One must keep in mind most memorial lettering
ranges between three-quarters of an inch to an inch
and a half. Of course there are bigger and smaller
letters. Also, in most apprentice settings, the layout
is done by one person and the cutting by another. If
all you do is cut stone, you get really good and
really fast (like most anything). Maybe the 200
letters is per week? And then again, maybe the
craftsmanship is questionable. At the John Stevens
shop, in Newport, RI, quality was the most important
achievement, and still is. They taught me a lot in the
years I worked there. Before dragging this out too
long, I want to mention granite. There are incredibly
good grades of granite with a very fine grain that are
a delight to sink a chisel in. You just need to do
your research, call quarries for samples and get your
body acclimated to carving for eight hours a day.
After a few months, you'll be surprised at how quickly
you can rip through a stone, and not chip anything.
Anyway, it was fun to read the comments and now my
fire is rekindled to keep at it. And in Texas, I met
personally with the groundskeeper of certain
cemeteries to explain that slate is still necessary in
the gravestone business. You must make a case. In some
places I told them I'd put it on a granite base and
then they were comfortable with the setup. You have to
drive down every avenue before giving up.  I think the
old thread was called Close to Stone or something
similar. It's a good read, worth the time. The most
important thing to me is that I love carving by hand,
drawing the letters, and "feeling" the stone.  I know
there are sandblasters that love what they do too.
Where I have a problem is when someone is doing a
pisspoor job just to make a buck, it gives the craft a
bad name. That's all I have time for as of now.  Good
luck with your endeavors!  Maureen