I'm glad to hear that slate is so long-lasting. I carved a dial in slate because that was the only thing I could find without an enormous effort that was carvable. I bought a piece of polished slate about 32" square and laid out the lines on it using a paper printout from a computer and scribed them into the slate by making repetitive strokes to deepen the lines using a straightedge and piece of hard steel. I continued the scribing job to deepen the lines and make roman numerals with straightedges and a piece of hard steel. Actually I used a tool sold for scribing and cutting formca for this purpose. The slate dial turned out well. I made the gnomon out of a piece of sheet brass using a hacksaw, drills and files, but had to get somebody to braze a little foot at right angles so I could screw it into the slate.
At 10:33 PM 11/24/98 +0100, Jean-Paul Cornec wrote: > About a comparison between different sorts of >stones for sundial carving, sundials of Brittany >in the west part of France are pretty >instructive. The region is rich with granite and >slate, and hundreds of dials are currently known. >The oldest sundials, dating back to the middle of >16th century, are mostly carved on granite and >very few on slate. But from the very end of 16th >century on, carvers and dialists have totally >given up granite for slate.
