How much does brick and a half weigh?
Who would win in a fight Freemasons or Stonemasons?
this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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How did you get started as a stone mason?
Bonus: what made you first consider it seriously as a profession?
As I said in a different comment:
Honestly just kinda fell into it. Was working in a warehouse and hated it. Just walked off one day, called a friend just to complain about it and the firm he was working for happened to be hiring. I was 18, I'm now a few months away from 40.
For the bonus: I left and did other stuff here and there, few years of demolition, but always ended up back at a masonry firm. I'm good at it. It's heavy work, but there's a lot of thinking involved. Sometimes you spend 3 times as long thinking about how a stone is going to go in around various obstructions without damaging anything than it takes to actually fit the stone. It's mentally stimulating and physically taxing. I guess to take the long way to answering your question, I always wanted to do masonry as soon as I started it. I only left for something else due to shitty bosses.
I imagine there's a basic set of skills every mason has to have to be called a competent mason. But more advanced skills aren't necessary. What skills did you develop that you really worked hard on? What some skill that really impresses you that you don't have in masonry?
Being able to guesstimate basic maths, measuring and then cutting exactly to that measurement, being able to semi-accurately gauge out a mix consistently. Most importantly, you need the willingness to do a hard shift, it can be brutal work sometimes. Everything else is icing.
A skill I worked really hard on was grinder dexterity. Being able to cut a straight line is actually a lot harder than one might think. And then polishing with a grinder, it's finicky, really easy to accidentally put a huge divot into a face.
Not really sure about a skill I'm jealous of. I'll have to come back to that.
Do you think it's possible that stone masonry is, adjusted for inflation, more expensive today than it was a hundred years ago despite improvements in technology? I.e. Cheaper, shorter lived building materials/techniques generates reduced demand for stone masonry, causing fewer stone masons like yourself to exist and ply the trade, increasing scarcity and therefore cost.
Edit: also, huge admiration for your trade. I love stonework and wish it were more common.
I don't really think so, my business partner back home was getting $50/sq.ft when he started on his own in the early 80s. Now you're going to struggle and fight to get paid $20/sq.ft, at least in Vancouver. So the masons are being paid less now than 40 years ago not even adjusting for inflation. And our wages used to include beer basically everywhere in the world, through all time periods until around the 1900s.
What's the biggest thing you ever made? Which work are you the most proud of?
And how are you received as a Canadian in Scotland? Do they treat you alright?
Do you have midges in Canada?
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Do you mean on c/AskMeAnything? or lemmy.ca in general? I'm new here.
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have you played dwarf fortress
Fuck yeah I have! Am I any good at it? Not so much.....
I salute you for the informative responses here, and for bringing some variety to the community by talking about a topic that isn't carried by sensationalism.
Do you have a mason's mark?
Thanks! This has been really fun!
Life's interesting enough without having to revolve around drama, too many people watching too much daytime TV....smfh
I do have a mason's mark, I haven't registered it though.
I see you do outside stone work. Ever do housing interior stone? Like granite or stone counter tops for houses? Stone on outside of houses? Anything residential?
How often do you get laid because of your stone mason expertise?
Yep, I take as much interior work as I can get! Most of what I've done in my career is "residential". Though that's kind of a stretch as most of the homes I was working on were multi-milion/billion dollar properties. I now work in conservation, and do side jobs occasionally.
I'll have a look through all my old pictures tomorrow and see if I can rustle up a pic or two of interior work I've done.
What are the cool and interesting tools in stone masonry?
I know a reasonable amount about metal and wood working tools, so I imagine CNC cutting and engraving have added some interesting new options, but I really have no other guesses
Diamond wire saws are neat, if Google hadn't completely fucked search for everyone I could probably find an article I pulled out back on Reddit. If I recall correctly, there's evidence of twine and fine sand being used in the bronze age to cut dimensional stone. Squared blocks.
I don't trust CNC to cut stone. They're fine for simple stuff, but there's always extra work on CNCd stone to get it to fit properly. And I definitely wouldn't trust it to cut something like a Corinthian capital.
Human ingenuity is by far the coolest tool in any trades person's bucket. As you encounter new problems, you Jerry rig a new tool. Need to cut the inside of a hole basically 90° from the face? Get a piece of steel, bend it and sharpen it. BAM! New cool tool specifically made to do a job!
'Stenopterygius' is an anagram of 'I get stone syrup' or 'Gutsy Stone pier'
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What are the major hazards involved in stone masonry? How did you get involved in the field?
Silicosis is one of the biggest hazards. It happens when ultra-fine particles of silica dust get breathed in and cause scarring on the lungs. It's spooky shit.
Other than that there's the usual dangers of working with large heavy materials and power tools. There's a high risk of Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome and arthritis from swinging a hammer at a chisel for hours on end.
Honestly just kinda fell into it. Was working in a warehouse and hated it. Just walked off one day, called a friend just to complain about it and the firm he was working for happened to be hiring. I was 18, I'm now a few months away from 40.
I found out my fieldstone foundation mortar turned to dust. I removed everything from my basement and have been tuck pointing for the last several months. It is a hard slog and slow going. I am not a mason but am doing this by necessity (i.e., I'm a fixed pension senior). It is amazing what I have learned from my "practice" wall and YouTube videos. I imagine if a real mason had a look they'd shake their head but it looks good to me and I am over halfway through. Changing out the windows was a learning experience as well. I never did anything like this before but as I am getting closer to the finish line, pride from hard work that pays off is starting to appear.
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what do you think happens when we die?
Hmmm....I think it'd be nice if there was something after, not convinced there is. I'm perfectly happy with returning my substance back to the earth. I asked my wife to arrange a sky burial....turns out that's not exactly legal here in the UK....
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