How to Carve Stones
From ancient times, people have carved stone. Stone spheres that are believe to date from 2000 B.C. have been found in Scotland. Fireplaces, gargoyles, bookends, awards, sculptures, paperweights, clocks, benches and more have been carved from stone. Stone carving can be very rewarding in terms of allowing you to express your creativity and make a beautiful stone item by hand.
Things You'll Need
- Stones
- Stone carving tools
- Protective eye wear
- Sandbags
- Sandpaper
- Water
- Floor wax
Instructions
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1
Decide on your project. When you are first starting out, keep things simple and practice on different stones. As you learn the skill of carving stone, you can branch out to make more complex designs.
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2
Select stones to carve. Some stones will be easier to carve than others. Sandstone is easy to carve. Granite and quartz are much harder. Alabaster is another good stone to start with. You can find a stone in your backyard or purchase from a specialty supplier. Alabaster, marble, granite, soapstone, onyx and other stones are available from dealers (see Resources).
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3
Select a variety of tools to work with. Point, tooth, flat and rondel chisels are the workhorses of stone carving. Hammers are used to hammer into the chisel and work the stone. Other tools include handsets, rasps and sandpaper. As you develop you may want to add drills, a work bench, grinder and polisher (see Resources). You will also need protective eye goggles and sandbags to secure the stone in place.
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Put your protective goggles on. It is imperative to wear goggles to protect your eyes.
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Draw your design on the stone and then place the stone on a sandbag. A sandbag is a bag made of material and filled with sand. This will help prevent breakage as you hammer away at the stone.
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Chip away at the stone, using a chisel and hammer at a 45-degree angle. Hammer the chisel into the stone. As you chip away, you will remove pieces of stone. Use a heavy chisel for larger areas. Remove small pieces with lighter chisels. Do not try to remove huge sections all at once as you may damage the rest of the stone. Do it in stages removing no more than 1/2- to 3/4-inch thicknesses at at time.
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Work with different chisels to continue to develop your design. Accent high points in the stone by chiseling areas near it lower. Each chisel will create different effects. The results will vary from one stone type to another.
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8
File chisel marks smooth with a wood rasp. This will smooth out ridges and give a finer appearance.
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Sand the stone with different grades of sandpaper. Start with a very gritty coarse paper and work down to a finer sandpaper to further smooth the stone.
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Rinse the stone with water during the sanding process to clear away dust. Wipe dry and resume sanding until you achieve the smoothness you desire.
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Polish the stone with floor wax. Apply a light coating of wax to the stone and buff with a soft cloth.
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Tips & Warnings
Work in a well ventilated area to prevent issues with dust.
