| At its most basic, you can carve stone
with just a hammer and point chisel. But as with anything, having the proper tools, of
good quality, will make the work easier and more enjoyable. |
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Safety equipment
The most important safety rule is to always wear safety
glasses. Wearing a respirator is advised when around stone dust, and is
absolutely required when working with stones containing silica (like granite) or
other toxic materials. Ear protection should be worn when using pneumatic tools
and diamond saws. Shock resistant gloves protect the hands from the pneumatic
tool vibration and abrasions from sharp stone chips. |
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Chisels
The point is the workhorse of the chisels. It is used for
roughing out and removing material quickly.
The tooth chisel is used next to further refine the forms and remove
the peaks and valleys left by the point chisel.
The flat and rondel chisels come into play for smoothing
out the texture left by the tooth chisel and prepare the stone for finishing. |
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Hammers
Hammers come in a variety of weights for doing different jobs. The small
one pound hammer is used for carving small details. The 2 pound hammer is good for general
carving. The 3 pound hammer has sufficient weight to effectively drive the pitching tool
in removing large chunks of stone.
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Handset
The handset or pitching tool is used for knocking
large chunks of stone off the edge of a square block. It can be very effective in removing
a lot of stone quickly.
The tracing tool is used for creating a more precise line along the
edge of a block.
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Rasps and Rifflers
The final shaping of the softer stones can be done with
rasps. Power tools for finishing can sometimes be hard to control and give a mechanical
look. The use of rasps provide a more natural, flowing finish. The rasp's scratch marks
can be left as a textural element, or removed with sandpaper. Sand
Paper
Usually the last thing to work the stone is wet/dry Silicon Carbide
sandpaper. Grits run from coarse (40-80 grit), medium (150,220,320 grit), to fine
(400, 600, 800, 1500 grit). Water is applied over the stone when sanding to remove the
sheared off dust particles.
Marble begins to show a polish at about 600 grit. Granite doesn't polish
until 3000 grit. |
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Chisels
The chisels used with pneumatic hammers are basically
the same as the hand tools. The difference is the round shank (usually 1/2") that
goes into the pneumatic hammer. The chisel types include: point, tooth, rondel, gouge, and
flat. They can be either all steel or, as in this case, carbide tipped. Carbide is much
harder (and more brittle) than tempered steel, so will keep an edge much longer. A carbide
chisel is sharpened with a green wheel on a grinder, and is never quenched. |
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Hammers
These pneumatic hammers (from Trow and Holden) work
on an internal piston driven by compressed air. They impart many rapid strikes per second.
They come in varying sizes from the pen size (like the Barre Bantam), 1/2",
3/4", 1", and 1 1/4". The 3/4" and 1" are used for general
carving. Hammers are made in two different styles: "type B" short stroke, and
"type D" long stroke. The short stroke hammers are used for general carving. The
long stroke hammers produce more impact and are used for quick material removal on harder
stones like granite.
With continuous use, the constant vibration of the hammer can cause numbness
in the hands. Anti-vibration gloves with padded palms reduce this impact. |
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Bushing tools There are also specialty tools such as bushing chisels, frosting chisel, cup
chisel, criss-cross chisel.
The 4 point and 9 point bushing tools are used to pulverize
granite crystals when doing the final shaping of the stone. The criss-cross tool can
create interesting textures. The frosting tool is used to texture marble. |
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Compressor
Each size hammer requires a particular amount of air consumption to
work properly. A 5 HP compressor with a 60 gallon tank should provide enough air
pressure to easily run the 3/4" hammer. The 1" hammer keeps my 5 HP compressor
running continuously.
Use a 3/4" hose to provide an adequate air flow. A stopcock
on the hose near the hammer is used to regulate the air flow. Quick connect
attachments allow you to easily remove the hammers from the hose . |
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Banker
The banker, or work bench, should be strong enough to
hold the weight of the stone and be stable enough to take the abuse of the pushing and
pounding of stone carving.
Sand bags can be made from the cut off legs of an old
pair of jeans, filled with sand, and tied off. Sand bags hold the work in place while you
are carving and polishing. |
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Grinder
The mini grinder with a 4 1/2 inch blade is an
extremely useful tool for stone carving. On the softer stones, inexpensive carbide masonry
cutting and grinding blades can used. Diamond blades are required for the harder stones
like granite, but can also be used on the softer stones. A flush mount adapter increases
the versatility of the tool, but will have to be used without the safety guard. You must
cut in a perfectly straight line with these blades. Any torque could cause the blade to
bind and kick back or damage the blade. An effective way to remove stone quickly is to
make a series of parallel cuts about an inch apart, then break them off with a hammer and
chisel.
The diamond cup wheel is very effective at smoothing rough
surfaces on granite before polishing. |
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Polisher
When I polish intricate or organic shapes on the softer
stones, I do it by hand with wet/dry sandpaper. For polishing large, fairly flat surfaces
on the harder stones, I use a pneumatic, center water feed polisher. It has a Velcro head
that accepts pads containing diamonds of different grits held in a hard resin, from 40
grit (coarse) to 3000 grit (fine). The water helps wash away the dust particles removed by
the diamonds. |
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Die Grinder
A die grinder can be useful when carving softer stones
like soapstone and alabaster. Equipped with diamond coated burs, it can make the job of
carving small details or getting into holes and crevices much easier. |
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Hammer Drill
The impact 'hammer' action of a hammer drill is
necessary when drilling stone. A regular drill will just spin and not cut into the stone.
Carbide tipped (masonry) drill bits must be used.
For larger holes, a pneumatic rock drill and carbide tipped drill
bits with air running down the center of the bit to the tip (to blow out the dust) are
used.
Caution must be taken when drilling a hole completely through the
stone. As you near the other side, the impact of the drill will blow out the surrounding
stone around the exit hole. |
Catalogs
and Links:
Trow & Holden Co.
PO Box 475
Barre, VT 05641-0475
Hand and pneumatic tools for granite and marble.
Gran Quartz
PO Box 33569
Decatur, GA 30033
1-800-458-6222
Diamond blades and adhesives.
Pronto Tools
31 Peking St.
Ventura. CA 93001
1-805-648-5432
Hand and pneumatic tools for granite and marble.
Braxton-Bragg Corp.
6031 Tazewell Pike
Knoxville, TN 37918
1-800-575-4401
Diamond blades and adhesives.
Granite City Tool Co.
PO Box 411
11 Blackwell St.
Barre, VT 05641
1-800-451-4570
Hand and pneumatic tools for granite and marble.
Target
4320 Clary Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64130
1-800-288-5040
www.targetdbi.com
Diamond blades and adhesives.
Montoya/MAS International, Inc.
435 Southern Blvd.
West Palm Beach, FL 33405-2684
Hand and pneumatic tools for granite and marble.
Sculpture House Inc.
100 Camp Meeting Ave.
Skillman, NJ 08558
www.sculpturehouse.com
Classes:
The Carving Studio
Marble St.
PO Box 495
West Rutland, VT 05777
www.carvingstudio.com
Stone Sculptors:
www.franciscosfineart.com
Sculptor of life-size figures in Colorado Yule marble.
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