Hi All,
The other day I got our 17yr old Daughter to brick up an outside flue hole in our next-door-neighbours ground floor bathroom extension.
We had been to the local building suppliers together and bought the correct bricks (LB Ironstone) some sand / cement mortar mix and we picked up a nice light / reasonably long chisel to suit her untrained hands.
Our objective was to remove all the disk cut bricks and replace them with full ones.
I first showed the general techniques, how to get a brick out without damaging the brick around it etc, gave her some safety goggles and some light work gloves and set her going.
She actually stuck at it for quite some time and especially seemed to enjoy removing some of the more stubborn bits of mortar (you know that satisfaction you get when you get behind a good bit and it comes away cleanly) ;-)
Anyway, this lead onto the idea of her doing some stone carving but we don't really want to invest too much money in any 'specialised' kit (might be ok if the stuff could be used for other d-i-y roles etc). Googling about reveals a few but most are up in the £100+ bracket.
Now I know the job will be much easier with the right tools but this is just an experiment for a fairly artistic and pretty competent (in a general sense) person who learns fast (we still have the little ornament she made with my MIG welder when she was about eight and it bears the most perfect 'J' on the surface, much better than I could have done even now!). The trouble is, like many kids today I'm not sure she has the patience to see a carving through to the end, not helped by the fact I know how fussy she is should something go wrong (like a bit breaks off etc). But, I'm still keen to give it a shot .. you never know if this is 'the thing' that she's does for a living etc.
So, with that in mind, does anyone have any ideas how we could best / easiest give some basic stone carving a go, what materials could be used and from where please? (You know like with some of these fancy expensive chemicals .. after you have bought them you find you could have just as easily used vinegar or brown sauce etc). ;-)
All the best and thanks for your time.
T i m
p.s. I already have a selection of cold / pointing chisels that could be tidied / ground up if needed and a range of hammers to use instead of a dummy, just to get us going etc. I also have a roll of that rubber anti-slip mat some of the kits seem to offer to work on.