[CJKarl]

Did a workshop with Jonathan Appell yesterday.

1689 pretty old poop.

 

[CJKarl]

 

[AmeliaP]

I love to read those old stones and to compare what they did with them for design. It's neat stuff.

 

[CJKarl]

Yes I could wander around and study the stones for hours.

 

[stonecutter]

What was done to restore them?

 

[CJKarl]

Just reset.

 

[CJKarl]

Number 2 killer of old tablet stones is leaning forward or back.Gets to a point where they will snap at grade.

 

[CJKarl]

Can you guess number 1?

 

[stonecutter]

Vandalism, acid rain or freeze/thaw?

 

[Kent Whitten]

Humans?

We have our local family graveyard about a tenth of a mile down the street from where we live. Years ago, my wife did some restoration work on the headstones there. Restored all of them to almost original. Moat are marble. Not sure what she used to clean them with, but they look great. Lots of my family history is buried right there. Back to the early 1800's.

I'm sure it's the same where you live, but you could stumble upon a forgotten graveyard walking in the woods here. Hell, I found a small lost community a quarter mile from my home. Full stone basements and all.

I'll see if I can find the restoration pics my wife took. It was years ago, so it may take me awhile.

 

[CJKarl]

Number one enemy of gravestone s...lawn mowers.. or more specifically the cowboys operating them.

 

[dom-mas]

When I was in England we happened on quite a few graveyards. The marble stones were almost unreadable 200 years after, the granite ones that were 300 years old or older looked new...the lettering anyway...the stones looked old enough

 

[CJKarl]

Many marble stone will "sugar" with enough wet and freeze thaw. You can crush it in your hand and it looks like large sugar crystals. Not much you can do at that point.

 

[CJKarl]

A very common monument stone here in CT was Brownstone. The large quarry is right about the middle of the state.
That does not weather well either.

 

[dom-mas]

brownstone is a type of sandstone isn't it? No I wouldn't think that would last long,

The marble I saw in England was just worn, the lettering was maybe 1/32" deep, barely legible

 

[stonecutter]

brownstone is a type of sandstone isn't it? No I wouldn't think that would last long

Depends on which quarry it came from.

Some of the finer grained stone doesn't last as long as the conglomerate types I have seen. None of them weather like granite though. It was primarily used for architectural pieces like banding, cornices, etc....anything with a lot of detail.