The title.
Feel free to ask me stuff. I’m in Scotland, born in Canada. I’ve been a mason for coming on 15 years. And my favourite dinosaur is…not really a dinosaur…the Stenopterygius species. because they’re tubby not quite dolphin looking (apparently) reptiles.
Are you really good at sand castles?
Absolutely horrendous at sand castles.
How do masons feel about Freemasons?
Well. The Freemasons started in Scotland. It’s generally accepted that the first Freemason temple was the Chapel at Stirling Castle. There’s some masons I’ve met here that think the Freemasons have the registry of Mason’s Marks. They may have in the past, but I believe that currently the Worshipful Company of Masons holds most of the UK’s mason’s marks. Could be debatable, the English gonna empire after all.
A mason’s mark was used to show who cut the stone, and who fixed it. It was how masons were paid for what they’d done.
In modern times the Freemasons is…a boy’s club. There’s likely very few actual masons who are members. Where I am in Scotland, most of the lodges are within a short walk from a police station,or what used to be one.
From the few conversations I had back home about them the general consensus is that it’s a bit of a joke that their “secret knowledge” is mostly just masonry best practice.
Don’t forget the super secret handshakes
🤦 I had. In my defence I was tired AF when I was answering questions, and something like super secret handshakes isn’t something I think about very often.
Haha I was just playing, I just think the handshakes are hilarious, especially how serious they take them
Fair enough 🤣
They are pretty silly aren’t they?
And pretend acting out the killing of Hiram.
😬 fact check: true
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.
Seeing as Scotland and Canada share a lot of place names, what’s your favourite place that you’ve been to both the Scottish and Canadian versions of? (Nova Scotia does not count)
So. Surprisingly? Canada is quite large! I have yet to be to a place in Canada that shares its name with a place in Scotland, and ALSO the place in Scotland. I’m from Vancouver, so West Coast (bestcoast) of Canada, and there’s a few…
I’ve been to a bit less than half, and not a single one of the Scottish namesake.
Though, every time I go to the Highlands I’m struck by just how very much it looks like BC…just a wee bit more wee…
That’s totally fair! I am Scottish myself and don’t know a lot about Canada’s geography beyond “big”, “often cold”, and “lots of forest”, so I have no idea if those Scottish place names are concentrated in specific areas, not to mention what the chances of both versions being interesting to visit. Banff is probably the first example that comes to mind, but the Canadian one isn’t in BC and the Scottish one is just a pretty little seaside town in Aberdeenshire so not exactly a destination in its own right unless you’re already nearby
Though, every time I go to the Highlands I’m struck by just how very much it looks like BC…just a wee bit more wee…
You may already know this, but the Scottish highlands actually were formed when Canada and Britain collided! The wrong side of Canada, but still
Regardless, I hope you’re enjoying being here
You may already know this, but the Scottish highlands actually were formed when Canada and Britain collided! The wrong side of Canada, but still
I did! It’s one of the tidbits I pull out when I’m feeling socially awkward and think I should probably say something!
Here’s a tidbit in exchange:
There’s a tiny little triangle -ish bit of the centre of Scotland that DOESN’T have windblown rain. This is important to know for choosing the right line for your mortar mix. Lower grades of lime take a lot longer to cure, so for faces of a structure that are exposed to windblown rain should be built or repointed with NHL 3.5 or 5. They give the quickest cure time, and are more resistant to weather sooner.
If I can find the notes from the course I took last year I will update you with where that wee triangle is 👍
We were living in London for the first few years after I moved, and I thought it was quite good. After moving up the way I realised that the only really good bits were the few friends I had, and the selection of food.
No offence, but there’s a distinct lack of decent anything but white people food… often deep fried.I very much miss coming home pissed and being able to order Ghanaian, or sushi, or mexican.
Other than those 2 things? It’s the most home feeling place I’ve lived since I moved from Canada.
Oh, that is quite interesting. I’d hazard a guess it’s somewhere east of the mountains, so probably somewhere around Perth?
Yeah, I totally agree on the food situation unfortunately. There’s a Ghanaian lady that shows up at a farmer’s market near-ish me once a month and I love getting her jollof rice. I mostly just accept that if I want something out of the ordinary for this place, I need to make it myself
You’re probably right about it being near Perth.
Glasgow has some good options, Edinburgh is getting better, but they’re so much smaller than London that it’s a pure numbers issue. There’s just not enough people.
have you played dwarf fortress
Fuck yeah I have! Am I any good at it? Not so much…
What led you to being a stone mason
I answered this in a couple other comments. So I’ll give you the TL;DR:
Worked in a warehouse, was bunk, walked out at lunch because fuck those hosers, called a friend to complain and turned out the masonry firm he worked for was hiring.
If you were suddenly fabulously wealthy, would you continue to work in stone, or quit and never look back?
If I was fabulously wealthy I would take time off to build my own house. Not often I get the chance to design and build something!
As the fifth of five people… How did you know?
There were pretty obvious signs
Well shoot. We were aiming to create an impression of a big group of us - like if there were 40 or more of us.
Better luck next time 🤞💪
Those pictures are amazing.
Do you run into trouble with permits and Inspections because that type of skilled work can’t be very common. Or is it?
Not yet! In my day to day job things are heavily dictated by engineers and architects. And when what jobs I take on the side actually require permitting and inspection I pay an engineer to go over my design and confirm I’m within regulation and the customer is required to get the appropriate permits and schedule inspections.
Masonry is kinda dying. In Canada it’s considered unskilled labour. So no certs, no training other than what you get on the job. The UK has a few different certificates depending on what country. England has a Vocational Qualification for Fixing(installation) and used to do multi-trade, Banker/Fixer(cutting/carving and installing), but have recently moved Banker to an arts bachelor. Scotland is still has a multi-trade qualification, but it’s actually really really hard to get. You need to have a quota of stones you have carved, but they need to be installed on a building. There’s also very few colleges left in Scotland that even offer a masonry course.
I guess what I’m getting at is that there’s a lot of cowboy outfits, and not many masons that do an actually good job. Fewer people are willing to get into it, and there’s more people just kinda winging it.
The numbers, mason, what do they mean?
Bro…if you don’t show me the numbers…I can’t help you out…
Oh, sorry.
Echelon 3 24 20 12 19 17 17 22 19 23 19 4 0 7 6 7 19 10 12 16 17 6 14 4 3 17 24 20 13 24 8 16 17 1 24 9 21 15 0 5 15 4 4 23 6 11 25 14 4 20 4 9 14 18 12 8 7 21 6 4 21 7 21 4 2 14 3 14 7 18 13 6 22 16 6 1 21 21 15 3 5 24 9 11 2 10 5 21 4 20 11 19 12 5 12 13 12 5 17 19 3 14 21 12 15 17 7 7 2 2 21 1 10 22 13 5
…yeah…I got nothing fam 🤷
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What’s your favorite hammer?
I have a 7kg mini-sledge. That’s my favourite.
My favourite that I actually use regularly is an Estwing 2.5kg lump hammer, it’s my daily driver, and also the tool I’ve had the second longest. Got it from one of my tradesmen (one of the guys who trained me) as a gift when he moved back to Germany from Canada.
I was half way hoping you’d say Estwing… I love their hammers. I have two of their cross peens that I used for (backyard, redneck) blacksmithing for years that still get use any time I need some girth/weight and one of their “masonry” hammers that I use for stone work (again, backyard/redneck shit).
Their 3/4 axe (I think they call it a camp axe) is also solid.
I have an Estwing brick hammer that gets some use, but not nearly as much as the lump!
Estwing just makes good shit. Or did. I don’t own any Estwing stuff newer than a decade old.Hmmm…might have to have a look at the camp axe 🤔
‘Stenopterygius’ is an anagram of ‘I get stone syrup’ or ‘Gutsy Stone pier’
I didn’t know that, but now I’m telling everyone I came up with it!
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.
I’d actually love to see it! It’s quite a pain in the process, but the satisfaction of the job done is beyond compare.
Happy to give some pointers.Thank you for your offer of advice. If I have any questions I’ll most certainly take you up on that! All the best.
No trouble at all 👍 always happy to help.
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.
