Talk:Stone carving

looking for stone carving I found that the page redirected to Petraglyph, which is relevant but isn't the whole story. Seems that wiki suffers from a lot of theoretical info at the expense of the practical sometimes. so i fleshed out the page with a 'hopefully' inclusive definition and added some content about stone carving as an activity.

hope it meets with your approval.

DavidP 21:54, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Reason for removal of sentence.
I cannot find any evidence that 'jet engines' were used to heat the rock to carve more easily at Mt. Rushmore. I doubt seriously that any were used since the thing was finished in 1941...Tracyfennell 09:16, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
 * you are right - of course. the work on the presidents did stop, but the carving of 'crazy horse' seventeen miles away, is still ongoing and there almost all carving is now done by jet this is also true of the confederate sculpture at stone mountain geogia.
 * see quote
 * "Indeed, carving Crazy Horse has been a learning experience, Ruth Ziolkowski says. In the beginning, they used dynamite but soon switched to detonating cord, which is much easier to control and better preserves the rock left after the explosion. Once the general shape of the sculpture is blasted out, the sculptors bring in a jet-finishing torch to smooth the surface.”


 * as the page is about stone carving rather than specific works I shall replace the reference to the jet as a carving tool. thanks DavidP

Hi. Someone with Wiki savvy/authority ought to change the paragraphs regarding iron age coming after the bronze age. Hittites, Cannanites, Indus people had Steel and irons as well as bronze... the reason the greeks were part of a bronze age (if thats right) is that they were a new culture and didn't have the technology of the previous more developted Cultures. There's problems in this 'article' the least of which is: (metaphorically) "God Created the Greeks, and the Romans destroyed everything." Seriously and reasonably though... all the greek myths originate in West and Central Asia, thats where the heros always quest off too... so?

Wishing Well


 * Good point - it would be a shame to get hung up on timelines for a subject where the historical timing of a process isn't really crucial. the main point is that prior to the widespread use of steel in ancient greece bronze was used (so abrasion preceded percussion)- It could well be the case that steel was known, but it sure wasn't handed over to the stone carvers (probably because the military could make better use of it, some would say).
 * In a sense it might be better to say "up until the widespread use of steel in a culture fine stone carving was performed using abrasives" - all early greek carvings are made this way, as are ancient egyptian works. most Hittite work is also drilled & abraded from the earliest portrait of King Yarim-Lim, c. 1760 B.C. to the first Hittite sculpture in the round in the 9th century BCE. There is only one surviving Indus stone sculpture, it too is abraded.


 * From your message I get a distinct sense that you feel you have identified a greek bias, and I am sorry if you feel that other cultures aren't fully represented. the reason that the greeks are mentioned here is largely due to the fact that the greeks changed the face (and practice) of stone carving. personally is see the transition from pre-Ptolomaic egyptian, through greek, roman, byzantine, holy roman and modern - as more of an evolution than a creation/destruction cycle. I am truly sorry if I was inadvertantly falling into any archaeological disputed territory. DavidP

Stone sculpture
We have a confusing situation here- it appears the Stone sculpture section of this article was either originally from Sculpture or it was from here and added there. Then it was removed from Sculpture in March and added to Stone sculpture. However we now have people complaining at Sculpture that there is nothing about how sculpture is made on that page... Gustav von Humpelschmumpel 18:52, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I think the contents in many sections of this article could definitely be expanded. Some feels not very detailed.--Balthazarduju 06:51, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Strongest possible stroke
Hi, Being a stone sculptor myself, I'd say the sentence ''then swings the mallet at it with the strongest possible stroke. He must be careful to strike the end of the tool accurately; the smallest miscalculation can damage the sculptor’s hand'' is not correct. Most important is a carefully controlled stroke, power has little to do with it. You can use repeated strokes if one isn't enough. The part about damaging ones hand seems overly dramatic, but damage is to be expected if you attack the stone with full force instead of full controll. Zwitser 17:37, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Much of this article
uses the gender specific "he" pronoun. I'm thinking of going to the "s/he" form for a bit and seeing what happens. Feel free to offer an ((opinion)). Carptrash 14:40, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I get your concern but s/he is pretty unwieldy, consider 'they' instead — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:8C3:8200:F528:5556:DF11:3B3D:9025 (talk) 02:49, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Photograph of stone sculptor
I changed the title of the photograph Image:Stonemasonry1.jpg, for this is clearly a stone sculptor, not a stonemason. It is quite common to get this mixed up, but a stonemason carves flat and profiled blocks and panels, but a stone sculptor does the ornaments and sculptures. Cordially, --Satrughna02 (talk) 21:41, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Direct carving
I was considering making a small addition to this article for direct carving, but am uncertain the location in the article that would be best for it. Direct carving was an important movement in sculpture from the early 20th century, and includes such European artists as Constantin Brâncuşi and Jacob Epstein, as well as such American carvers as Jose de Creeft and John B. Flannagan (who strangely does not have a WP article). 173.52.187.133 (talk) 16:39, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Under Stone sculpture, of course, but there is already something there. Could be expanded. Even better still, rewrite the article Stone sculpture itself... --Satrughna (talk) 12:16, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Intrinsic qualities of stone needed for good carving and/or preferred for particular carving style...
WOuld be nice if there are structural qualities of the stone itself that make for intinsically desirable carving. As in Mohs Hardness range for specific tools or styles. Whether crystalline structure characteristics of the rock molecules are of any concern: like Crystal Class, Space Group, Cleavage plane, Lattice System (ie: Monoclinic, Triclinic) have any bearing on types of stone used/chosen for use in sculpture? Or even if particular Categories of Rock are preferred more than others? 81.102.111.206 (talk) 10:30, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Slate carving
Slate is missing as a stone that is easy to carve. There is no mention of using ring saws to cut out shapes for carving. Soft stone surfaces can be finished/polished with wet sanding by hand with course thru fine grit sand paper. (80, 120, 220, 400, 600) I didn't want to edit the main text. Better if someone involved with this page would add this info in. 47.148.188.240 (talk) 17:04, 12 September 2022 (UTC)