The basic steps in stone carving are design, percussion
removal in three stages (roughing, secondary shaping,
and smooth finish), hand rasping, sanding and finally
finishing and mounting. The stone carving tools used to
perform these functions are considered handheld unless
specifically described as pneumatic or electric. The
basic tools needed are the point, rake (tooth
chisel), the flat straight chisel and a
hammer, all of varying sizes and weights. All are made
of high carbon steel.
The point removes the primary bulk
material and comes in three sizes, small, medium and
large. All taper down to a four-sided point and the
thickness, or size of the point, will be determined by
its heaviness. The smaller the size, the finer or
lighter the point.
The tooth chisel or
rake,
for the second stage of removal, is a flat
straight chisel with slightly beveled teeth. It is
available in four basic widths, the smallest having four
teeth, the next five teeth, the next six teeth, and the
largest having eight teeth. The tooth chisel is
principally used in the geometric reduction of a larger
piece of stone.
The straight chisel is the
finishing tool used before the final abrasive finishing,
rasping, and sanding. It has a straight edge with a
slight bevel of possibly 30° and is available in three
sizes, small, medium, and large.
There are also
specialty tools
which are not normally used in standard carving
but by intermediate and advanced carvers for added
assistance in multiple projects. They include the
diamond shaped point,
used for parting ferrules width-wise. (In stone carving
there are no “v” or veining tools as in wood carving;
points do this job.) The rondel is a
rounded curved tool for concave carving; the cutting
edge is a round bevel. Talk about the caped chisel.
The fish head is an outward,
“c”-curved tool that, held sideways, looks like a
sunfish. Its cutting edge is flat on the outer curve and
is used to make slight long strokes similar to those
made by a long bent gouge in wood carving. The needle nose point is an inward
shaped point (concave) that comes to a dramatic point
used in removing bulk stone. The straight gouge chisel is used for making
trench-like, or half-round grooves. All these tools are
available in one standard size.
Stone carving hammers come in
three weights and are made of soft iron, so the
percussion is easier on stone, tool, and user. There are
two standard sizes of steel heads which are measured in
pounds but these are not commonly used due to the strong
percussion on the tools and stone. The sizes of the
heads are: 1 pound used for small detail work, 1½ pounds
for the most common type of carving, and 2 pounds for
larger carving. The handles are heavy strength, the
hammer heads attached to the handle through a center
hole in the head with several steel wedges ensuring the
fit. Unless you are very muscular, the 1½ pound hammer
is the tool of choice.
Pneumatic tools, composed of a handpiece and the
pneumatic tool and used with an air compressor, can
reduce bulk material in about a third of the time
standard handheld tools require. Common shapes of the
cutting ends of the pneumatic tools are:
points, rakes, and straight
chisels, and in wood carving are short bent,
straight chisel, gouge, fishtail, and parting tool.
Visit our
online
stone carving store
to view our carving stones -
alabaster and soapstone as well as stone carving tools, kits
and accessories.
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