[Illustration: MASONS AT WORK.]
Having already given a description of the way in which bricks are made,
we come to the work of the Mason, whose duty it is to prepare the stone
work used in building and for other purposes. In the mason’s trade great
skill is required, as well as some hard manual labour, since he has to
cut the stones for arches, windows, columns, cornices, and porches, into
various shapes; and to fit the separate pieces with perfect accuracy,
that the Builder or the Architect may be able at once to set them in
their proper places. The business of the monumental mason, who erects
pedestals for statues, tombs, and ornamental structures in parks and
gardens, is generally distinct from that of the builder or architectural
mason, although many of the same tools are used in both trades.
The stone used by the mason is of various kinds, and is brought from
different parts of the world; but our own country contains stone of
nearly every sort which can be well employed in ordinary building.
Granite comes principally from Scotland, though a smaller quantity is
brought from Ireland; red and white sandstone is plentiful in Yorkshire,
Lancashire, and Derbyshire, as well as in Scotland and Ireland; a sort of
slate stone is found in Wales; and the most common building stone, which
is called limestone, or free-stone, is brought from several counties in
England, where it is constantly worked. The stone is generally found
under the surface of the earth, and the places from which it is dug are
called quarries; the business of quarrying being to extract from the
ground, or from the sides of rocks, large masses of stone or marble.
When these lie directly under the ground, the earth at the top is
removed, and the stone is afterwards separated into blocks and lifted
out by machinery; but it is sometimes necessary to mine for the stone
by making galleries underground, and leaving pillars to support the
earth above them. In large quarries, the earth at top is first removed,
and the first layer of stone, which is generally of a common sort, is
broken or blasted with gunpowder, and afterwards taken away. The lower
layers of stone are then divided by wedges driven into them, until they
split in the required direction; the blocks are afterwards made of a
regular square, by a tool called a _kevel_, pointed at one end and flat
at the other, and are then lifted by cranes on to low waggons, upon
which they are drawn away. It is the business of the mason to work these
stones, which are to be used in building, into their required shape;
but before the mason receives them the _stone cutter_ hews and cuts the
large blocks roughly into the form in which they are wanted; and when
the block is to form top of a doorway, part of a cornice, or any other
portion of a building where ornament is necessary, the _carver_ executes
these ornaments, and cuts the stone into a pattern of fruit, flowers, or
figures.
[Illustration: Peck or Point. Stone Axe.]
When the stone is valuable it is sent from the quarry to the mason’s
yard, or to the building where it is to be used in large blocks, and
there cut into slabs or thin pieces called “scantlings,” of the required
size, with a stone mason’s saw (_see large cut_). This saw differs from
those used in other trades because it has no teeth. It is a long thin
plate of steel slightly jagged on the bottom edge, and fixed in a frame;
and being drawn backwards and forwards in a horizontal position, cuts
the stone by its own weight. To make this the easier, a heap of sharp
sand is placed on a sloping board over the stone, and water trickling
upon it from a barrel washes it into the cut made by the saw. In large
establishments the sawing of the stone is often effected by steam
machinery. Some of the freestones are so soft as easily to be cut with a
toothed saw, worked backwards and forwards by two persons. The tools used
by the mason are the peck or point for chipping the surface of the stone,
the stone axe for breaking the irregular portions from the block, the
iron mallet and beetle, for breaking pieces from the edge of the slab or
driving in wedges.
[Illustration: Wooden Beetle. Wedge. Iron Mallet.]
[Illustration: Rubber. Mallet. Brush. Chisels.]
The tools used for cutting stone are the mallet and chisels of various
sizes. The mason’s mallet differs from that used by other workmen, being
of a sort of half pear shape, and with a short handle only just long
enough to allow it to be firmly grasped in the hand. The rubber is used
for smoothing the surface of the stone, after it has been worked by the
tools; sand and water are placed on the stone, and the rubber is pushed
backwards and forwards for the purpose of grinding the face of the slab
to a smooth surface; another block of stone is sometimes applied to the
same purpose. In London the tools used to work the faces of the stone
are—the _point_, a very small chisel only about a quarter of an inch
broad at the cutting edge; the inch tool, which is a broader chisel; the
_booster_, broader still; and the _broad tool_, which is three inches and
a half wide: beside these, there are tools of the same kind for working
mouldings and carvings.
[Illustration: Square. Bevel Square. Straight Edge. Trowel. Point.]
Besides these cutting tools, the mason uses a _banker_ or bench, on which
he places his stone for convenience of working, and _straight edges,
squares, and bevels_, for marking the shapes into which the blocks are to
be cut, and seeing that his edges and surfaces are even by trying them as
the work proceeds.
The bevel square is a square the _stock_, or lower part, of which is
moveable, so that it may be set to any angle or level as required.
Sometimes a pattern called a _templet_ is used for cutting a block to any
particular shape, and when the work is moulded, the templet is called a
_mould_. Moulds are commonly made of sheet zinc, carefully cut to the
profile of the mouldings with shears and files.
It often happens that the mason has not only to prepare the stone, but
to set it in its place in the building, and this is properly part of
his work. He then uses the trowel, for applying the composition for
cementing the stones together; lines and pins to show whether his edges
are straight and square, the square and level for a similar purpose; and
various rules for adjusting the stone faces of upright walls.
[Illustration]