- What are the limitations of lettering into stone-
It depends on what you mean. In terms of size - I can only V cut a letter with a cap(ital) height of about 20mm with a realistic maximum of about 400mm due to the thickness needed, on a museum or library or summut (Few and far between!).
There are limitations in terms of material, a welsh or cumbrian slate can take a finer letter with more intricate flourishes etc due to the finer grain. Also letters cut into slate have more contrast and are less likely to need to be painted to stand out. V cut letters look best with raking light across the front. The classic Roman caps have stunning proportions but were designed to be best used in fine grained marble to go out in Mediterranean sun. For inscriptions which are going outdoors in the UK I think its better to use thicker letters.
In terms of form, some letters are easier to carve, lots of straight lines are pretty simple. Tight curves with lots of thick to thin are more difficult.
- ideally, i wanted to have the cover of the book made out of stone and chisel in the title of the book but i needed to know whether this was possible and what the ideal stone to work with would be if it was?
Absolutely, slate would be your best bet.
- another route i was looking into was how in scripted stones are effected by erosion and weathering. I wanted to ask about what stones you have found to last longer against weathering in your work and which ones are more prone to it as well
As a really over-simplified rule; the softer the stone the more it will weather, so sandstones and some limestones will go quicker. Also depends on the local weather and atmosphere conditions, some of the headstones next to Whitby Abbey on the headland are corroded in really interesting ways. Slate or granite weather well. But granite is awful to letter into.
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These answers he had given has been amazing in the process of designing the book. To top it all off, he offered me the chance to come and visit his studio to ask any more questions that I might have and to get a feel for what stone masonry is like. After telling Simon, he told me to book out a dlsr camera from photography to get some professional photos of his studio and to also grab a tri-pod to help with the stationary shoots.
After speaking with Steve Roche at his workshop in Sheffield, we discussed the possibility of using stone within this publication. After he got me to attempt to chisel a simple letter I, It was clear that my skills in this area are zilch at the moment and would take much longer than the time I have for this project to get to a decent standard. We discussed different options that I could look in to which were much easier to accomplish such as to laser cut into the stone (while quick, it would leave a chard look to the outline on the letters and it would also make this more brittle), laser etch (a much cleaner finish to the outcome) and sand blasting (same as laser etching in terms of a finish with the added feature of going as deep into the stone as required with a U cutting look to it). He gave some examples of each and after talking for a while, we said that for what I wanted, sand blasting would probably be the best option for what I was hoping to make for my books cover as it had a very clean finish that gave the impression of it possibly being made by chiselling and would be cost effective.
He gave me an off cut slab of Cumbrian green slate to sand blast onto to get a feel for what the outcomes would look like. I brought it to James down in the digital print room to see what limitations there are when cutting out the vinyl. the only thing was that would be an issue was that the text can’t be smaller that 12pt size as the serif fonts I wanted to try (to get a V cutting look to the stone) would be problematic to pick the letters out to transfer it over. With the vinyl cut out and stuck to the slate, the sandblasting was done without any hitches. with the letters now engraved in to the slate, I was happy with the finish that sand blasting gave to the stone although, I would blast into it deeper next time and the Cambrian green slate itself is far too heavy so a new stone is needed to lighten the load. Don’t want people pulling their back out when lifting the book.
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