Gravestone smoothing

[Windmill]

I've been wondering for some time about the possibility of smoothing the rough-finished side of a gravestone which has no more room for names on the front side.

Don't know if that could be a DIY job, and not sure if anyone (stone mason?) could do that sort of thing on-site. Obviously proper permission would be needed before any such work.

Last time I asked I was told that it would be more expensive to remove the stone, smooth it, and replace it, than to buy new. But there'd be quite a lot of work in lettering a new stone to match the old, so I'm not so sure about that.

Working on the stone while still in place might be cheaper, I suppose.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[NT]

Such stonemasonry is certainly diyable. It looks a bit time consuming though, especially if you dont have a suitable saw to level off the rough side, and you do it by hand.

NT

[Andy Burns]

Bodyfiller with suitable coloured dye!

[Frank Erskine]

It can be a bit confusing having sculpting on both sides of a headstone; the side with the details on usually faces the grave at the "head" end. If there is writing on t'other side it might give the impression that the grave is the wrong way round (and out of line with others in the row).

[Tim Lamb]

Angle grinder!

regards

>

[NT]

anyone tried that? I wonder which is quicker, carbide grinding discs or by hand

NT

[PeterC]

PTO?

[Frank Erskine]

In your grave? :-)

[michael adams]

The usual soultion seems to be to have a supplementary plaque lying on the grave usually propped up by a bookrest type thing maybe it may all be all in one piece.

The probelem with having writing on the back is that it could give the impression there are bodies buried on both sides of the headstone. Normally people try and avoid walking over graves and so this might create problems where gaining permission is concerned.

michael adams

...

[PeterC]

Nice!

[Steve Walker]

Interesting, I wonder if this is general and our area is an exception or whether it varies from place to place.

In our local cemetary, the headstones stand back to back in rows, with two graves between each row. Unless you were very careful to walk exactly down the middle of the gap between two rows, you are pretty well bound to be walking on one or the other row of graves. No-one worries about it.

As a child, I helped out at the local churchyard (no burials take place there anymore) removing all the grave edge markers and leaving just the headstones, allowing them to grass it over and mow it - this was a vast improvement, as prior to this it had been badly neglected and overgrown, but it also means people walk over the graves.

There are also a fair number of graves with horizontal marker stones around the church door area. Walking along the stones is quite normal.

I've also visited a cemetary in Ireland where there *is no space* between the graves and you have no choice whether or not to walk over them - as this cemetary is now full, they have opened a new one opposite and I wonder how long it will be until the currently neat and opem layout is filled in to the same state as the original one?

SteveW

[Bolted]

I've not done this to stone, but I have done some concrete to a polished finish. It had been cut with a concrete chainsaw, but is on show so needed a fair finish. I used one of those diamond grinding disks (diamonds on the face, not the edge), and then followed up through the grits with the diamond polishing pads which fit on an angle grinder sanding pad. Got a great result in not that much time (15-20 mins or so from memory), but then this was about 100mm x

300mm. I'm not so sure a whole headstone starting with a hewn finish would be very much fun.

[Windmill]

It's been some time since I looked at it, but AIR the side in question was given a sort of artistic rough or pebbled finish. Not sure if an angle grinder would get close enough to the surface to do much of a job, and there'd need to be some kind of final smoothing.

I'll be out that way in a week or two and will take another look.

Thank you for your comments.

[Windmill]

Is that what the embalmers use? :-)

[Windmill]

There are other stones with something on both sides (but not with actual names on both sides).

It's a very old graveyard so I'm not sure if there really is much in the way of standardisation.

[Windmill]

Some of those buried there might well turn over if they thought I was wastefully purchasing a new stone. Which is quite likely a nearly four figure sum, nowadays!

[Windmill]

I hadn't thought of that, but should have done. For decades there was a little stone block labelled simply 'Baby' to commemorate the unbaptised twin of a cousin, born dead. It kicked around all over the place until it finally found a permanent home at the foot of said cousin's stone. Rather sad.

You're probably right about that. I certainly had an odd feeling when I stamped for emphasis above my parents' grave, telling my younger daughter that I wanted to be 'planted, not burned'. (Besides, it costs less than cremation when there's room to spare in the lair, and I'm Scottish!)

I think you may have the best solution - a small supplementary stone. There'll be few left to read it after me, so you can call it irrational even to have that. It's obviously a very personal thing, but I just don't like it when someone is cremated and there is nothing left to show, even for a brief time, that they ever existed.

[Windmill]

I have two. One on each foot.

[Windmill]

I had been wondering about something of the sort. Sounds like it would be a one day job, maybe longer. With the noise of a generator running to power the tools. Maybe not acceptable in a quiet secluded spot.

Thank you for the info, though. I might change my mind.

[Windmill]

I think something of the sort is likely to be normal in old churchyards. Country ones, anyway.

Gray's Elegy wasn't written in the one in question, but I always feel that it could have been. "The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea / And leave the world to darkness, and to me."