I'm Tom, a trained banker mason and stone carver, showing the work I make so that people can have a better understanding about how the ancient trade of stonemasonry is done in the 21st century. Hopefully you can join me on my journey to make some cool stuff from the unforgiving material that is natural stone.
Thats wicked man! An other way of transferring the letters on to the stone is to rub charcoal on to the back of the paper, stick it to your stone with tape/blue tac then with a blunt-ish 10-H draw around the printed side of your letters then you should have a nice out line :)
Great vid.. I have just started out with a small workshop after many years fixing. Just hammer and chisels for me with a few power tools. Thanks for sharing your skills. Gives an old man hope..👍👍👍
Absolutely awesome work mate. Whats up with the cracks in the finished product, are they a feature of the stone or something you've repaired and if so what did you use to bond those?
They are ancient fault lines which have re-bonded over a very long time so are solid and nothing to worry about. Just makes a nice feature of the stone. Similar to the veining you find in many other stones.
Thanks, I was working for a firm on Portland, Dorset for my apprenticeship. great place to learn from some highly skilled masons. I was very lucky to have the apprenticeship I did.
im 15 years in now and still learning but the actual apprenticeship is 3 years. traditional apprenticeships are 5 years. I would say after 5 years most people were pretty competent if they do it ever day.
Great to see the variety of work that Banker stonemasons encounter. This short video illustrates a number of designs for headstones and memorials. The use of hand tools in conjunction with grinders and air chisels was good to see, especially how each was utilised to form rustic, chamfered and stopped edges. The close up shots are extremely helpful. As always the standard of workmanship Tom is superb. Looking forward to any future posts - most grateful to you for taking the time to promote this wonderful craft!
You make it look so easy mate. Always enjoy your videos and get the urge to get back into being creative. 30+ years as a Mason and would be carver 👍 🏴
Couldn't agree more on the styrofoam packaging. Some people hand me their scraps of foam plastic, which works great if it's not too heavy, and it doesn't break and crumble all over, but it's not really suited for everything and it's still plastic and expensive. In Germany twisted wood fibres are used a lot, but that really is not a substitute for eps either because it's not flat. Wood fibre boards are not great either cause those get soggy in the rain and can stain the stone..... what else?
Actually you know what’s pretty decent is the expansion joint foam. Stays together. I’ve got a 40mm thick piece of foam I’ve cut up it’s absolutely amazing.
If you ever need to replace the brush on an angle grinder always look for the power source. If it’s powered by compressed air then remove the tube. If it’s powered by a battery then take the battery out. If it’s powered by electricity then unplug it. 2:46
Nice and informative stuffs mate, shoutout from Danish banker 💪😁 We do very much the same here. We also use the electro plated ones for cutting marble and "crisp" stone
@@mainstonecarvingtbh mate, it was terrible 😂 think it was called "belch noir" sold as marble, act like flint stone or glass 💀 high rotation, 0 wobble electro plated and it would still splinter some corners
