Hammerhead Stoneworks

I lost a wedge and set of feathers in the lintel stone. The stone broke cleanly, but this wedge, at the front edge of the stone, didn’t split quite right. The wedge remains, well stuck in the stone. In this picture, the wedge is set about two inches back from the front of the fireplace. I am leaving a ‘truth window’ in the stonework, so that you can look inside this little pocket and see the stranded tool.

This is my work space in the cabin, morning light filtering in. The recessed floor is where the hearthstones will be set.

There are marbles throughout this project, including this playful little dragon, well hidden in the face of the fireplace.

This tiger beetle has been a shiny emerald skittering around my stone piles.

This spring has been the wettest in years and the salamanders are in seventh salamander heaven. Everyday I see a few, under stones, in the creek or sometimes just walking around in the damp leaf litter. I believe this to be a Mountain Dusky Salamander, but I am not certain of my ID.

Today I set the lintel on the fireplace at the cabin in Mars Hill. The lintel is 46″ long and approximately 9″ by 9″ square. I cut it from a large slab, that weighed just shy of 1900 pounds. Here I am waiting for a fissure to emerge. I’m cutting the end of the lintel off using feathers and wedges. It’s very gratifying to listen to the stone as it splits; it sounds like ice.

Reid and Zach were on hand to help with all the lifting. We used 6″ by 6″ blocks to make a very sturdy tower in front of the fireplace. This made it much easier to lift the stone into and out of place, three times total. The first time I saw the general placement and marked the bottom of the stone for shaping. The second lift was to check the fit. I made some minor shaping adjustments and then the third lift was onto a mortar bed.

The lintel leftovers, all 1,000 pounds of it, made a good step onto the cabin porch. We will adjust grade so that the step down is consistent across the face of the step, which will effectively hide the oddball build up stones.

A couple of the drill holes on the face of the steps broke such that they can hold marbles. These are easily removed by kids, but the others are a couple of inches down a hole that didn’t break open at all. Those will be tougher to get.

Below is a detail of the break between the lintel and the step stone, just after I split them.

In April I led a class on creating do-it-yourself flagstone paths and patios at the North Carolina Arboretum. It was a perfect day for it. We started with a classroom presentation that covered the basics of setting flagstone as well as aesthetic choices and safety issues. after lunch we went outside to the Arboretum’s Stone Classroom and played with some Tennessee sandstone. Flat and easily worked, sandstone is a good starter stone for DIYers. People worked in teams of two and laid small areas of flagging.

In this picture I am apparently demonstrating the proper technique for making sure your stones don’t float away while you are working them.

Photo credit: Mac Franklin of the NC Arboretum. Mac and his crew built the classroom, including the gigantic sandbox I used for the class.

We have scheduled two more classes for August and early September. The dates will announced to Arboretum members soon. If you are interested, e-mail me for details: marc (at) hammerheadstoneworks (dot) com.