Monuments and headstones can be personalised with beautiful engravings of words, patterns and pictures. It takes skilled monumental masons to create these carvings in memory of loved ones who have passed. If you are in the process of getting a headstone or monument carved, you may be wondering what the process is and how they are made,
Here we’ll explain the whole process from start to finish.
Granite blocks are cut
The first step is for the granite to be extracted from a quarry or mine. They will cut the granite block from the bedrock, this is usually done through drilling. A pneumatic drill is used to cut vertical holes in the granite along the cut line approximately 20 feet deep. Steel bits with steel teeth are used to cut away at the core of the rock.
These granite blocks are usually cut about 3 ft wide, 3 ft high and 10 ft long, weighing around 20,250 lbs. Once the block is cut loose, a cable is looped around the block and attached to a large derrick that lifts the block onto a flatbed truck that transports it to the headstone manufacturer.
Manufacturing granite
Once at the granite manufacturer, the granite slabs are cut into smaller slabs, around 6, 8, 20, or 12 inches thick. They use a diamond rotary saw which is equipped with a 5ft or 11 ft solid steel diamond blade. The slabs will then need to be polished.
They are passed under a varying number of rotating heads with differing levels of grit arranged from the most to the least. This is similar to sandpaper but on a much larger scale. The pads use water and aluminium or tin oxide powder on them to help polish the stone to a smooth glossy finish.
Once the headstone is ready for finishing, they are either cut or rock-pitched into the desired shape and size. This is a technique where the outer edges of the stone are chiselled by hand to create a more defined shape.
Monumental masons
Once at the monumental masons, the designers will take the customer's ideas and create a headstone layout showing in detail what the finished cemetery memorial will look like. The customer will then be able to approve the artwork and inscription.
After this, the monumental masons will use the computer-generated artwork to create a stencil to be carved into the memorial. This is used as a guide to ensure all words, dates or emblems are correct and fit properly onto the stone.
The granite is carved by a stone mason who uses a high-pressure hose to trace the design from the stencil into the granite headstones. Once the design is carved from the stencil they will fill the crevasses with black or white litho. The stencil is removed and the headstone can be shipped.
If you are looking for quality monumental masons to carve your cemetery monuments or headstones in Wishaw, get in touch with the team at Stewarton Memorials today.