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| Rough block and template |
Pretty exciting week all things considered. Perhaps a wee bit too much excitement truth be told. With the plinths completed, work begins on the jambs. After using a grinder to rough out two blocks in the yard I'm left with a piece that will need to be plumbed and flattened on four sides.
Using a steel rule an arbitrary line is drawn along the length of the stone near the edge. The two sides are flattened enough to accurately pull the measurement around the narrow face to complete the line on the other side.
A Tragedy Averted
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| Blow out below the line |
I learned an important lesson regarding pitching. When the stone has a relatively small thickness such as the five inch stone we are using it is best practise not to pitch with the force of the strike into the banker. In my case the impact reverberated back into the stone creating a massive cleaving of the stone that went underneath my surface line.
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| Too close for comfort |
It was hard to tell initially whether my stone would be unusable for the jamb. So first thing I did was walked away for about 20 minutes. Came back, put on some Bob Marley and carved back towards the line until I was confident that the material removed in carving the profile would include the blown out mass. Yah man! No problem, erytin irie!
My comfort with the tools is beginning to manifest itself and I've gotten very adept at creating a flat surface. Professor Warren is now working closely with me on efficiency, the minimum amount of steps it takes to achieve the end result. I'll need those skills to pick up the pace. It is really sinking in how large a fireplace this really is. A lot of carving ahead this semester.
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| Ready to Rock! |
Mission accomplished for the week. My stone is squared up, profile applied and the lines for the chamfer, the first large of mass to be removed, is set up for carving.
Contributed by Patrick Webb
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