Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 14
Rudimentary clamp to
secure small stones or
bricks whilst dressing
them. (Courtesy of
Dr. Peter Hill)
Clamp
Piece to be worked
Support for
clamp
Torsion bar
and pegs
Twisted cord
and the other, opposite, serving as a support (Fig. 14). As the lower torsion bar
is turned, the tourniquet effect clamps the brick tight.
Yet another method that could have been adopted, as suggested by stone-
mason/carver Piers Conway (2002) was:
Fixing down a small brick could have been achieved with small 'dabs' of Plaster
of Paris to the base of it to hold it to the banker prior to being carved.
The author upholds all of these craft practices as sound and pragmatic alterna-
tives to facilitate the post-fired working individual rubbing bricks.
Chisels
Chisels, in a variety of sizes, worked with a hammer or mallet, are among the
most common tools used by the mason for cutting, shaping and finishing
stone. They certainly would have been regularly used on some harder types
of bricks selected for cut and rubbed work; and this was clearly evidenced on
many of the calcareous bricks, similar in strength to soft stone, traditionally
used in Flanders. They were neither necessary nor indeed desirable, however,
on the softest of the rubbers. In tests carried out by Peter Hill, using his own
mason's tools on rubbing bricks to produce some cut mouldings in the man-
ner of a stonemason, concluded (P Hill, 2001):
It was clear from our experience that working with masonry tools such as the mal-
let and chisel is not satisfactory for removing large amounts of material. This is
owing to the nature of the material, which seems less cohesive than stone. There
was a strong tendency for the brick to 'pluck' when removing more than two or
three millimetres at once.
