Stone carving

Stone carving is an ancient activity where pieces of rough natural stone are shaped by the controlled removal of stone. Owing to the permanence of the material and evidence can be found that even the earliest societies indulged in some form of stone work. Work carried out by Paleolithic societies to create flint tools is more often referred to as knapping. Stone carving that is done to produce lettering is more often referred to as lettering. Stone carving differs from stone as in marble quarrying in that it is the act of shaping whereas quarrying is the activity of acquiring useful stone, usually in blocks, from geological sources.
The term stone carving is of particular significance to sculptors being a reference to a particular way of producing sculpture. The term also refers to the activity of masons in dressing stone blocks for use in architecture, building etc. It is also a phrase used by archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists to describe the activity involved in making some types of Peroglyphs.


Stone Sculpture


Carving stone into sculpture is an activity older than civilization itself. Prehistoric sculptures were usually human forms. The earliest cultures used abrasive techniques and modern technology employs pneumatic hammers and other devices. But for most of human history, sculptors used hammer and chisel as the basic tools for carving stone. The process begins with the selection of a stone for carving. Some artists use the stone itself as inspiration. The sculptor may begin by forming a model in clay or wax, sketching the form of the statue on paper or drawing a general outline of the statue on the stone itself. When he is ready to carve, the artist usually begins by knocking off large portions of unwanted stone. This is the "roughing out" stage of the sculpting process. For this task he may select a point chisel, which is a long, hefty piece of steel with a point at one end and a broad striking surface at the other. The pitching tool is useful for splitting the stone and removing large, unwanted chunks.
The final stage of the carving process is polishing. Sandpaper can be used as a first step in the polishing process or sand cloth. Emery, a stone that is harder and rougher than the sculpture media is also used in the finishing process. This abrading or wearing away brings out the color of the stone, reveals patterns in the surface and adds a sheen. Tin and iron oxides are often used to give the stone a highly reflective exterior.