Your hands were blistered, your head dripping with sweat. It had
taken a day, or two, maybe three, to create something you now
hold in your hand to secure your short-term job-site future. You
likely thought about its design and function in your head as
long as it took to cut and weld it together with the best steel
or iron you could find. A chisel. Not just any chisel, a
stonemasons chisel. Your chisel – its size, and weight to fit
your hand – an extension of yourself. Made for the specific work
you were paid to perform. Created for a specific type of stone.
The chisel shape, length, and sharpness all part of its design
and intended purpose to birth a dimension stone of specified
measurements and texture worthy of setting into a historic
masonry wall. To become an important part of another historic
stone masonry building of load bearing capacity, carrying the
weight of each consecutive floor upon itself as it raises from
the ground on the stout foundation we never see or appreciate.
The creation of stone chis