Tutorial on carving stone

Manual and mechanical tools

A beginner should always start with hand tools to learn the tricks of the trades, for the following reasons:

• to avoid costly mistakes when not careful with the material

• To learn how to handle the tools

• To approach the stone with a gentle and open mind by working slowly

• To get fitter, build up the body and increase the good muscles, to train the brain to know the process step by step

• To avoid causing any injury while working with dangerous power tools

• To be intimate with the material, it is not a race, it is a journey of discovery, so take your time, relax, go with a gentle flow and progress slower rather than faster, more furious and riskier

The best way to start is to learn to work like stone masons do: they draw a line and follow it, slowly but they always keep a few millimetres off the line for the finishing. If you can follow the line and don’t go over the line, it’s good. Being precise and regular takes time and dedication. There is no use being able to do fancy details if you can’t respect the lines you have drawn, because you will make mistakes if you go too fast.

The material likes to be respected, it needs to be treated like a friend, except that it doesn’t forgive at all, so treat it well by not being too brutal with it.

It is not necessary to buy a book of stereotomy (the art of tracing on the stone) to start with, but knowing how to carve a perfect cube, a column or a sphere can be a good start.

Choosing hand tools

When I started, I grabbed what I could get. As I was starting with limestone, I used chisels for wood, which are fine at first. Then, I bought better tools, special for stone: points, toothed chisels and flat ones. Even if I use power tools an awful lot, I still need my hand tools for extra help. A set of hand tools should contain the following:

• Soft iron hammers

• Wood hammers (with wooden handles from the chisels )

• A full set of chisels to play with

• Riflers and files

• Sand paper with all grades from 60gr to 400 or 600gr, you can even go to 1200 and more, depending on the finishing of the piece)

• Sundries (foam/padding to hold the stone, a stand/stool/bench to work with, a small brush for the dust…)

• And the personal protective equipment (PPE): goggles, gloves, mask and ear plugs. Steel toe cap boots are also important to wear as stone and tools fall off very often. 

By using regularly all these tools, you can learn how to get used to them, some are more difficult to handle than others, depending on the weight, the usage and the practicality of them. You have to feel that they are the right tools for you. But it will take time to get over the first awkward feeling about using hand tools. In the beginning of my artistic journey, I couldn’t get used to the “all steel” chisels, preferring the wooden handles and my wooden mallet going with it. Later, I changed my view about it, I’d rather go for the “all steel” tools now, they carve faster.

Mechanical tools

Thanks to mechanical tools, carving is faster and less hard physically. But regardless of this observation, they require a different attitude toward them compared to hand tools. As they cut, drill and grind faster, they require more concentration as well. An accident happens much faster with an angle grinder doing 13.000rpm than a file. I usually don’t listen to any music when carving with mechanical tools. First of all, the machines make too much noise and secondly, I need to keep 100% focussed.

Tips on Cuturi hammers

The type of Cuturi hammer you should buy depends on what you want to do with it. I can tell you what I have done. The first I have been told to buy is a Cuturi type “U”, because you can rough out well and do some small works as well. Then I bought a Cuturi type “E” to do the fine carving details. This year I bought a Cuturi Type “V” which is a bridge between the two types I have. Now, I am fully equipped. If I wanted to carve huge sculptures, I would probably buy a type “S” or “T”.

If you have the possibility to go to Italy, buy them direct to the manufacturer. You will get a discount. Remember, they are not sales people, they only produce them, so they will tell you in Italian what you need at a cheap price. They also produce Cuturi chisels (bush hammer heads, flat, claw and point chisels) and riflers.

They don’t produce round chisels but there is a trick which I got from Italian marble sculptors.

As the Cuturi chisels have a tungsten insert, they mustn’t be grinded with an abrasive stone used for normal steel. Instead, you can get a grinding wheel you can adapt to a fixed grinder. This green stone will prevent any excess heat to build up so that from a flat chisel, you will grind slowly by gently turning the chisel to get a round chisel, perfectly shaped if you are patient enough. Obviously, this type of grinding stone is very soft so it will wear out quickly, but it will allow you to get the best chisels instead of getting an alternative to the Cuturi chisels.

As the Cuturi hammers need oil for lubrification and marble doesn’t like oil at all, you should get a few drops of special oil in the airline, just at the air intake of the hammer (just after having disconnected the airline). Then reconnect the airline and get your Cuturi to work with no chisel on for a few seconds. Once most of the excessive oil has gone, you can start working again.

Choosing mechanical tools

Diamond coated tools

I love diamonds, not on a necklace but on discs and files, it’s terrific what can be done with diamond incrusted tools. They are much more expensive but they last long. They are an investment as long as the manufacturing is of good quality. Cheap and nasty diamond coated discs found for very little are often awfully made and they don’t last long. But good quality tools are to be chosen over second choice. Discs, files and grinding wheels can be found with different sorts, shapes and price. You have to try yourself a bit at a time before buying in bulk orders.