Talk:Stonemasonry

Edits
I took the liberty of adding and editing many sections of the page. These included the Definition, Training, Tools, and History of sections, adding a substantial amount of original material. I also removed the three tags that were at the forefront of the article. The cleanup article, because I have cleaned up the article somewhat. The merge with modern stonemasonry, as I find that article completely unencyclopedic and inappropriate for even it's own page, let alone merging it with this page. And the third tag was "See also Masonry" which is redundant as that is located at the end of the article in the "See also" section. --Mincan 06:45, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the edits today Triglyph2, I noticed the shortened history section. I believe that the space allocated for the history of the medieval stonemasons was quite unbalanced. Perhaps I will create some new shorter information. We have so much information from this period and it is the period that started the trade down the path it is on today. One can make the argument the middle ages formed the base of which the modern world is built upon. Mincan 09:25, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

1911 Britannica article on Free-stone
Thought this might be useful. User:FeanorStar7

FREE-STONE (a translation of the Old Fr. franche pere or pierre, i.e. stone of good quality; the modern French equivalent is pierre de taille, and Ital. pietra molle), stone used in architecture for mouldings, tracery and other work required to be worked with the chisel. The oolitic stones are generally so called, although in some countries soft sandstones are used; in some churches an indurated chalk called clunch is employed for internal lining and for carving.


 * I'm going to have a go at rewriting this page. It contains a lot of info but in no coherent structure.  It also has many gaps, misconceptions and inaccuracies.  Please let me know what you think.
 * I also think it should be moved to stonemasonry.--Stonemad GB 22:18, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Deletion of material
I have deleted the following sentences:


 * "However, The Modern day mason should be skilled and competant to carry out all aspects of masonry. There should be no divide between the precise setting out, working the stone's (The banker mason) and the fixing. Todays Masons Should have the Training and skills perform all task"

The reason is that this comment is not necessarily true. While many masons are competent in all branches of the craft, there are also many more who specialise say in banker work, and would not have the experience to do complex fixing tasks. The trend is definitely towards increased specialisation.--Stonemad GB 22:31, 15 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Perhaps we can re-add this in? However, we should use the terms "may" instead of "should". As far as the trend moving one way or the other. You cannot speak for the entire world, and in my part of the world, Canada, the trend is definitely going the other way, whereby one mason can be required to do quite a bit. But it is important to say that some stonemasons have the ability to carry out two or more of these specialisations. --Mincan 00:09, 21 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Mincan is right, we should re-add it and use "may" In germany almost all stone mason have the ability to carry out all aspects of masonry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rasta1961 (talk • contribs) 21:57, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Euro-Centric
There is little or no discussion of the work of Asian Stonemasons. THis text is far too Euro-Centric. (admittedly the great wall of China is made of brick, not stone) but there is magnificent stone work in Asia which predates much of European civilization. Jon Jonasson (talk) 23:54, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Good point. I've broadened the initial paragraph to include examples from Sth and central America, Oceania, India and Indo China. It already had Europe SW Asia and Egypt. But the main article needs a revamp especially the bits about the Americas as these currently imply that stone working was introduced by the Europeans. Jonathan Cardy (talk) 18:04, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Photograph:Stonemasonry1.jpg
This (beautiful) picture is described as a stonemason at work, but I am of opinion that this is a mistake. The gentleman in question is without a doubt a stone sculptor or else a craftsman specialized in stone sculpture. A stonemason does carve in stone, but never sculpture or ornaments; those are the terrain of the stone sculptor. Stonemasons carve flat and profiled building blocks, stairway steps, anything profiled in stone, provided it's with drawn templates, not free carving --Satrughna02 (talk) 19:12, 3 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I took the liberty of changing the subtitle of the picture, but I still think it's in the wrong article. There is a need for an article about the Stone sculptor, or else the Restoration sculptor. Best wishes, --Satrughna02 (talk) 16:13, 23 November 2008 (UTC)


 * This is not entirely true. In Germany a lot of masons also make sculptures. When I had my training, I learned also to make sculptures.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rasta1961 (talk • contribs) 22:05, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Moai
Personally, I like the two pictures of moai, but I think they are in the wrong place. Since they are depictions of humans or something anthropomorhic, I think they should be considered as sculptures, so they should be included in stone sculpture or stone carving rather than in this article. Admiddedly, they probably have been carved by groups of workers, who with some good will could be called stonemasons, but that doesn't change the point: they're meant as sculptures and therefore a bad example of stonemasonry or stonemason's work. I think the reference to this should also be removed in the article text.--Satrughna (talk) 14:42, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Hewing
The term hewing is used in carpentry and stonemasonry. The article hewing needs attention to present information about hewing stone. Jim Derby (talk) 00:55, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Journeymen
"journeymen had a higher level of skill and could go on journeys to assist their masters" This is a common error. The word journeyman comes directly from the French word journée meaning the whole length of a day, or a day's work. Hence a journeyman meant a worker who was paid for his day's labour; as distinct from an apprentice (unpaid, except in bed and board) and a master craftsman, who commanded higher wages in accordance with his skills. The modern word journey is of course from the same origin, but it comes down to us with an altered meaning. Nuttyskin (talk) 21:09, 18 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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Are all stonemasons a part of Freemasonry?
There are a kind of fraternity organizations called Freemasonry that practices some secret rituals and follow certain code of conduct. Although Freemasonry and Stonemassons have historical relations, it is not clear to me the venn-diagram relation between the two. There are freemasonry members who are not stonemasons. But is there any stonemasons who are not member of any freemasonry? Or all stonemasons require to go through freemasonry?

Kindly clarify that within the article. 2409:40E1:100D:518E:8000:0:0:0 (talk) 20:35, 22 April 2024 (UTC)