Gravestone start to finish

My dad was Stone Cutter. I spent many hours in the shop he was foreman of helping prep the stones by cleaning them, then applying the stencil rubber with the glue after frosting the right areas. He would do the artwork on paper and then transfer it with carbon paper. Out came the scalpel and he would cut the artwork, then the lettering. Sandblasting the stones by hand (no automation until he had been there twenty years) and cleaning out the sandblast booth between stones. Stripping the stencils after applying lithichrome to the lettering and imprints. Then peeling the rubber and cleaning off the glue. I was about five when I first started going to the shop with him. My brother too. We would help set the stones at the cemetery and at Memorial Day we would help with the rush. Cemetery lettering in the summer. I spent many a warm day on the grass watching my dad blast the dates into the rock. He is gone now and I visit his stone and grave often. He taught me so much and loved all of us. No better tribute to a person than a monument to their life and humanity could be made. Thank you for letting me revisit my childhood one more time.

It has long been my wont to see how headstones are engraved and set. Thank you for this video!

Love seeing the process from start to finish!

WONDERFUL VIDEO!!!! Love you guys and your work….. keep up the awesome and amazing work!!!

remember 40 yr ago when a was slating a chapel roof in the church yard, watched this fellow during my break do all this cutting by hand, he had a hessian sack full of tools placed the sack on the grave sat on it cross legged, got out his pencil and he wrote old English inscription to match the old victorian inscription, cold chisel and wooden mallet, cut it out beautiful, a thought he was all done, got his little had drill out started drilling holes in the lettering, then he had strips of lead beating into the letters, it was perfect, a said how long have you been doing this kind of work, he said I was trained the old school way off my dad when I was 14 yrs old, I asked what age are you 70yr old, he was retired and done it for a bit pocket money, I said your skilled, he said semi skilled, to think the Egyptians Babylonians , etc could cut granite with bronze chisels by hand a think we have lost a lot of skills since the introduction of electricity, its all about mass production now, the fellow was finished job in 3 hours

Thank you for posting this video. It answered alot of my questions. God Bless you

I love this! I did monuments for 8 years it was interesting work.

Loved the video all around! Keep up the good work!

The cardinals are a pretty touch. We finally got my sister's stone made, so pretty cool to see how that would have been done.

I had no clue that sandblasting was involved, I guess I imagined someone with a chisel going at it for a week, if not more. Then the fact that sandblasting can go that deep into the stone( and the text staying so sharp ) without going through the paper, I wasn't expecting that ether.
Very cool process.

there is just something satisfying about weeding vinyl or masking, Great Video!

Great job , 👍👍👍

Thanks!

I have seen this done at a cemetery but not in store. Educational. Loved when you said worked for your father in law five years..put in your time to get a wife.🥰

Thank you

Wow!I didn't know that it took that much work.

Great work, I happen to do it differently when it comes to frosting an area. I engrave the names etc, paint the engravings then let dry. After with some mud I fill in the engraved parts that I will be frosting making sure to clean the images or panels to just leave the mud that is filling the engraved. After with light pressure I lightly sandblast the polished areas to remove that polish. Once done not only do I have the panels and areas/images frosted their also painted and ready to peel stencil off for cleaning.

Wow

I wish you could make our stone. It’s good to know the process when buying a stone. Thank you.

God bless 🙏