My stone age

UPDATE: November 2024 - Click this link- Jewish memorial to the lost souls that I was honored to recently carve.

I've been a member of Local 1 Philadephia, PA since 1981, spending most of those years as a Stone Mason in old Local 3 Stone Masons of Phila, PA.  This allowed me to work on many large projects in the area and learn from some of the best stone masons on the east coast. 

As the years rolled by so did my desire to learn all I could about stonework along with Architectual stone carving and relief carving.  These pictures represent just a glimpse into my favorite stone carving throughout the years....  

tools of the trade

rosettes for a historic building at the Navy Yard, Phila PA

sample carving for a private residence fireplace 

 tree stump carving

a carving in limestone that I named 'stone carver at lunch'

front view of 'stone carver at lunch'

carving for the stone company that I used to work for

a limestone lion book end

french limestone of my dog 'Max'

a closeup of a limestone tree stump

a grave marker made from English green slate

one and half ton block of Indiana limestone to be used for baluster railing

template applied 

marking the stone out in pencil

ready to start carving

progress

getting it into shape

finished piece

missing stone will be placed here

complete

knee replacement high atop City Hall, Phila PA

blueprint of original carvings. Missing knee is on the angel to the right

 A cement mold on the right that I made to help guide me through the carving process. 

To the left is the block of Danby marble to be used as the replacement knee

carving process starts with the aid of a pointing machine which is used to transfer 'points' from 

the mold to the stone replacement

progress to the right side

finished knee to the right and cement mold on the left

cement mold

limestone carving of the Marine Corps eagle, globe and anchor

progress

completed carving is on display at the Marine reserve unit in Folsom, PA

arch stone for church of the Redemer in Bryn Marw, PA

French limestone railing for the Barnes foundation in Lower Merion, Pa

wainscote railing corners

completed section of wainscote for the Barnes Foundation

cornice base course for Dupont mansion in Wilmington, Delaware

progress

completed pieces

Indiana limestone signage for the entrance of Bryn Mawr college 

visitors signs for Bryn Mawr college

completed entrance wall

replacement trim for City Hall Phila, PA

City Hall

City Hall

replacement coping stone for Swarthmore College 

progress

getting there

completed coping

the start of a headstone

ready for lettering

hand carved V cut lettering

base stones completed

completed headstone ready for placement

marble signage in place at 1800 Market street Phila, PA

also in place at 1800 Market Street Phila, PA

'triglif' frieze replacement stones at Dupont mansion in Wilmington Delaware

more replacement 'dutchman' stones for Dupont mansion

completed replacement stone for the corner in the same frieze

ready to carve the return end of a water table stone for a replacement at Swarthmore college

in progess

completed water table replacement stone

Here is a photo below of a common repair known as a "dutchman" repair.  It begins by removing the decayed or broken portion of stone and then inlaying a new piece of material with epoxy resins.  One the epoxy hardens you simply carve to match the existing profile, as shown below on these two limestone arch stones.

                                                               prepping for multiple dutchmans

                                                                     progression....

                     finished product, just needs to be washed down at the when the archway is completed.

various arch stones ready to be set back into place

almost completed...

A selfie from the twentieth floor scaffold setting stone panels on a center city Phila high rise during 

a 25 degree January morning in 2006

                   

Below is a series of photos showing the restoration of an over 100 year year old marble fireplace. 

When the house was torn down decades ago the fireplace was partially destroyed while family members tried to save it for future use. 

     I spent many hours finding and fitting pieces together before cleaning or repairing. Here are five   

     courses of marble making up the upper segment of the mantle.

      

  During this time I preformed cleaning samples using only Ivory dish soap to remove the staining.

 Searching for the pieces that fit with each other by matching up the old plaster and shadow lines'

many pieces stained 

    starting to remake missing pieces using scrap material from my collection of marble scraps saved 

    through the years

fitting pieces back together using epoxy

Header stone completed and cleaned below

 
                                                                    side legs completed

                               time to glue in rough corners that were missing on the mantle stone

                                            sanding down corners to match existing bull nose

                                                         finished mantle with new corners

                                              packed and ready to deliver and install in it's new home

ready for installation

                                                  hearth is ready for the marble to be set 

completed marble surround is complete and ready for use

                                                                

I've always been interested in sundials so after researching all about them it was only natural for me to try and make one.  The first thing was to make a working model from cardboard and record the results.

Starting by looking up my home's longitude and latitude on the internet and then finding another website that I could print out a template.  

Once I knew that the cardboard model was keeping time I scribed the lines onto an piece of white Carrara marble and carved away.

I wanted an arrow showing North but after seeing many designs I decided to draw a comical sun face with arrows

shaping up nicely 

ready for the brass gnome

brass gnome was made and mounted into place

casting a shadow just as planned

it now sits in my backyard and gets plenty of use by family and friends 

It keeps very accurate time almost to the minute especially as the sun is higher in the sky.  Although the earlier in the day and the later in the day when the sun is low it may be off by 7 to 10 minutes. 

 As long as the brass gnome in the center is pointing to the North Star and at the correct angle, your sundial will keep accurate time. Keep in mind that the brass gnome angle will be pointing at various heights according to your longitude and latitude on earth.  

The closer you are located to the equator, the lower the angle of the gnome will be. The closer you are to the North pole the higher the angle of the gnome will be.

Below is my stone selfie that I carved out of an old piece of limestone during the pandemic that I now call  "one pandemic afternoon"

The carving started out from this broken baluster removed from a restoration job at Bryn Mawr College back in the 90's.  Grabbing a mirror from my shop I quickly drew a rough sketch of my head and of course needed to throw in one of my many Jeff caps into the carving.

Progression below after a few hours or so....

shaping up 

finished up the carving in about six hours or so

It now sits on a bench in my vegatable garden slowly weathering away  

                                A rabbit carved from a chunk of French Limestone scrap

It's been almost 30 years since completing this carving I call "Stone carver at lunch".  It's been sitting outside in the yards of past two homes weathering through sun and storms and is now showing its age.

 Although retired now I'm still very passionate to see the trade carry on into the future.

Recently I was honored to teach a class on Ashlar Stone masonry at Williamson Trade College in Media, PA.  Click this link to view the class and subject.