Sand stone carving

During the Visby Medieval week of 2020 I attended a one day course to try stone carving. This brief article describe tools, processes, and results of this day.

For start we were each given a block of sand stone, a surface to use it against, and some simple tools.

Tools

The main tools used was:

• Club
• Chisel

For protection glasses were worn.

Choice of pattern

Since this was a basic course to try out techniques, and time was very limited, I opted to create a stone with the number seven on it. The only place I could think of to place this stone afterwards was at the house I'd left with my ex-wife, and that house had number seven on the street it was on. I figured it could help the mailman find the right place. The chosen style was my attempt of a 1950's typeface.

As it happened I had some spare time at the end of the course, giving me time to also chisel in the family mark and to go around all sides of the stone to smoothen it out.

Tricks identified

• Make sure the stone don't move.
• Do not be afraid to chop away too much material. The deeper the carving, the better it look when light hit it from an angle.