Hello Jack: Sometimes I really wish artisans Harriet James and Ben Jones, were members of Sundial List. Both live in England and both craft fabulous slate sundials. (Ben just gave a talk at the BSS conference on his stone carving techniques. I'd love to get a copy of it.) Slate is very big over there. They have good quarries. Both Harriet and Ben carve their slate sundials the old-fashioned way, with hammer and and an array of chisels. Typically though, many slate sundials are scratched or scribed using the technique you mention, probably because scribing is a lot easier than chiseling. Of course, a scribed sundial face has carvings that are more shallow and less prominent than a chiseled face. Over many many years a scribed sundial will lose its markings faster than a chiseled one. Marble and other sandstones can be scribed or chiseled easier than slate because they are softer stones.
If you want to see how well marble, slate and granite weather, visit your local cemetery and look at the dates on the headstones. You can really see the effects of weathering, especially in Europe where the cemeteries are older. You'd be surprised to see how poorly granite weathers. Marble weathering can be severe in acid rain areas and areas that freeze. Slate seems to be the most durable of all. It's pores are so small that water can't seep in. Cutting with diamond burrs works very well on marble, limestone, sandstone, and flagstone. It works on granite, but is more difficult to cut. I haven't tried it on slate because there is none available here. If you could send me a tiny sample of slate, I'll try it. John John L. Carmichael Jr. Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr. Tucson Arizona 85718 USA Tel: 520-696-1709 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: <http://www.sundialsculptures.com> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jack Aubert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 7:39 AM Subject: Carmicheal technique for making stone dials > Having returned from the NASS conference in Tuscon and having been dazzled > by the beauty and techniques John demonstrated for working with sandstone, > I am energized to attempt something similar using locally available > materials. > > My neighborhood stone supply place sells slate and white/black/green > marble. I know slate is very easy to work with, having made a slate dial > once by simply scribing the lines and numbers with some home-made hardened > steel tools and a straightedge. Marble should also be quite easy to carve, > but I wonder how durable an exposed marble horizontal surface would be > given acid rain and so forth. I also wonder if it would be feasible to use > John's technique (diamond cutting tools with water drip) to work on > granite, which is quite a bit harder. I suspect it might be feasible to > carve the lines, but perhaps not to polish by hand. > > I wonder if John or any of the other list members have any ideas about the > suitability of different types of stone. > > Jack > > - > -
