Letters Slate Cut: Frustration and Vindication! - or- Diary of a Mad Letter Carver

["Ted Schaghy" <ted@zzzzzzzz>]

All right, I was wrong.  I started out thinking that carving letters by hand
was going to be a long, painful process of learning.  It really isn't that
tough.

I started out trying to find out more about the type of slate I was using,
as some of you may remember.  Did it come from Arizona, Washington, out east
somewhere - or what?  The guy who knew nothing about the first few slabs I
bought was at least honest.  He knew nothing and admitted it openly.  The
guy who told me over the phone that he knew everything about slate and that
he had several types to choose from, well... I went to see him as promised,
early last week.  As it turns out, he doesn't know anything either.  He told
me, and I quote: "I've been in the stone business all my life - and all
slates are hard; one is just as hard as the other.  There is no difference
in any of them except the color."  I informed him that I had been informed
differently, that some slates were softer than others and some were better
suited for letter carving - and so on.  "Well, I don't know who you're
getting your information from, but they don't know what they are talking
about."  To top it all off, he refused to break a pallet open for me to buy
a large piece of this very beautiful slate he said had come from New York.
He rudely informed me that if I wanted to buy anything from him that I would
have to buy at least half the pallet - "or forget it."
"Got any open pallets I can pick from?"
"No!"

Folks, customer service here in Las Vegas does not exist anymore.

Anyway, after grabbing the guy by the hair on the back of his head and
smashing his face into that pretty piece of New York slate a few times...

...just kidding

Anyway, I went home a little frustrated and headed for the garage.  I had
been reading and absorbing the information in the Grasby and Kindersley
books ever since I got them a couple of weeks ago.  I looked at my slate.
What kind of slate are you?  Answer: who cares?  I have a couple days off
and want to experiment with carving letters by hand.  What the bloody hell
difference does it make what kind of slate it is?!!!!!!!

I measured out and drew by hand a series of numbers across the face of this
piece of slate I had sanded earlier.  I did my very best, drawing and
re-drawing my very own, 'Letterted' - and it did look good!  I proceeded to
follow the instructions I learned in the books from memory.  A few hours
later, I had produced a piece of slate with our new house number on it,
polished to a high sheen.  The contrast of the sanded face of the slate and
the chiseled, v-cut letters was enough to show all the lettering without
having to worry about painting the letters to make them show.  I worked all
around the carving, starting here and ending up over there, etc., trying
some of the techniques they had shown in the books.  It was extremely fun
and absorbing, very addicting and yet a very therapeutic sort of thing to do
at the same time.  I loved the process.  After a while I sounded like some
sort of machine... "tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink,
tink, tink, tink, tink!" I went for the better part of a couple of hours.

About the time I was finishing up and feeling very happy about it, my wife
showed up and fell in love with the thing.  She informed me that it was to
be hung on the front of the house as soon as possible - just like it is.

Is my work perfect?  No.  I don't think it needs to be.  Could I have done
better?  Yes.  Will I do better in the future?  Yes.  The point of the
project was to stop researching every little thing and trying to be Mr.
Perfect and finally set myself to the task of carving a letter or, in this
case, a few numbers, and get the feel of doing this stuff by hand.  After
all, isn't that what I went to all this trouble for?

I am so enthralled by the whole thing I am going to just keep carving and
enjoying it!  I love it!

Thanks All, on this site, for your help and your comments!  I'll post photos
as soon as I can stop forgetting to buy the new camera.

Ted