Today, @ The Nut, i had a long conversation with Jim Metsger. I explained about this fireplace and several other jobs i did during my 30 or so years as a mason contractor. even tho i am not much for drawing pictures on paper, he understood what i was telling him and even told me who invented the method i had used to transfer the weight and outward thrust so the whole thing would not collapse of its own weight. I was very much disappointed with his explanation, however. Here, all these years (I built this somewhere around 1959, but i will still stand by that i am only 39) i have been patting myself on the back telling everybody i was the inventor of the type construction. [tongue]
[attachimg=1]
When starting this job, i was very apprehensive about the field stones that were available for the construction. I had already had to argue for the design with the owner's husband. My friend was a very long term friend who was very dear to me and i wanted to do something special for her. Between us, the poor hubby had no argument.
Once I started, I discovered the stone wall on the property was of mostly poor quality, being afflicted with some rather scary seams and very difficult to break with hammer & chisel for any type of regular shaping. as soon as struck with any type of striking tool, I would end yup with piles of rubble. i was very concerned, but tried to cover up my apprehensions. I have always ben a glass is half full king of guy and somehow, think things will work out some how.
later
It looks like if you click on the blue, the pic will show.
As I was putting in the fire brick for the firebox, my helper took advantage of the slow period to go out into the brush just to get an idea of the lay of the land. We were building this fire place on Martha's Vineyard in the township of West Tisbury, MA. Just a hop, skip and a very long jump from Wilton, CT where our home base was located.
As he was poking around in the brush, he stumbled onto a pile of very beautiful and square cut granite blocks. The blocks were all about 20"+/- thick by the same widths. Every stone was about 36 to 40" in length with very straight and even grain that could be cut in all directions (90º to any other direction) with only a 16 # sledge or even 12 # spalling hammer. After the first split, i could go down to an 8#spalling hammer. Even tho I could cut each piece nearly perfect square, i did not want such formality. I changed the shapes where possible but kept all of the stones well bedded for strength and stability
Since the fireplace was on an island famous for its whaling history, and the wall (the lower section of a gambrel roof Ha! I bet all of you carpenters thought this was going to only be about masonry. To satisfy you guys, I had to throw in that bit about roof construction, just to keep this all legal) sloped inward, I took artistic license to make it look like a giant fish moving into the room looking for a bite to eat. Some of you might have doubts as to my sanity, but I think it fit into the imagery I wanted.
Tinker
I'm sorry about this. i tried to enter the pic, but could not get it to show. i tried to eliminate the entire message until i can figure out how to enter the pic; but i get a message that i cannot cancel my own message.
I will continue to try to fix.
[attachimg=1]
When starting this job, i was very apprehensive about the field stones that were available for the construction. I had already had to argue for the design with the owner's husband. My friend was a very long term friend who was very dear to me and i wanted to do something special for her. Between us, the poor hubby had no argument.
Once I started, I discovered the stone wall on the property was of mostly poor quality, being afflicted with some rather scary seams and very difficult to break with hammer & chisel for any type of regular shaping. as soon as struck with any type of striking tool, I would end yup with piles of rubble. i was very concerned, but tried to cover up my apprehensions. I have always ben a glass is half full king of guy and somehow, think things will work out some how.
later
It looks like if you click on the blue, the pic will show.
As I was putting in the fire brick for the firebox, my helper took advantage of the slow period to go out into the brush just to get an idea of the lay of the land. We were building this fire place on Martha's Vineyard in the township of West Tisbury, MA. Just a hop, skip and a very long jump from Wilton, CT where our home base was located.
As he was poking around in the brush, he stumbled onto a pile of very beautiful and square cut granite blocks. The blocks were all about 20"+/- thick by the same widths. Every stone was about 36 to 40" in length with very straight and even grain that could be cut in all directions (90º to any other direction) with only a 16 # sledge or even 12 # spalling hammer. After the first split, i could go down to an 8#spalling hammer. Even tho I could cut each piece nearly perfect square, i did not want such formality. I changed the shapes where possible but kept all of the stones well bedded for strength and stability
Since the fireplace was on an island famous for its whaling history, and the wall (the lower section of a gambrel roof Ha! I bet all of you carpenters thought this was going to only be about masonry. To satisfy you guys, I had to throw in that bit about roof construction, just to keep this all legal) sloped inward, I took artistic license to make it look like a giant fish moving into the room looking for a bite to eat. Some of you might have doubts as to my sanity, but I think it fit into the imagery I wanted.
Tinker
I'm sorry about this. i tried to enter the pic, but could not get it to show. i tried to eliminate the entire message until i can figure out how to enter the pic; but i get a message that i cannot cancel my own message.
I will continue to try to fix.
