OLD-TIME STONEWORK: See “New” Old-Time Stonework Up Close

One of the things I learned after I moved to Manitoulin Island, Canada back in the mid-1980s was traditional stoneworking. I’d never done it before coming here and I’ve never seen anyone else do structural stonework in the old fashioned way from raw stone. Manitoulin is a limestone island and there’s lots of building material here free for the taking (and lot of old stone buildings to learn from). This “taking” is not that easy because it involves prybars and stone hammers and a lot of sweat, but at least there’s usually no financial cost involved.

• Video Watch Time = 8 1/2 minutes

The video above records an historic moment at our place. The summer of 2016 is when I took down the scaffolding on one side of my house after reaching the peak with stonework; 30 feet off the ground with a round window, watch above to see what the “scaffold take-down day” looked like, and hear my thoughts on stonework and why I love to do such a crazy, labour-intensive thing.

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