Blocking Course, a heavy course of stone above a cornice to form a parapet and weigh down the back of the cornice (fig. 8).
Fig. 8.
Bed.—The bed surface upon which a stone is set or bedded should be worked truly level in every part. Many workmen to form a neat thin joint with a minimum amount of labour hollow the bed and thus when the stone is set all weight is thrown upon the edges with the frequent result that these are crushed.
Coping.—The coping or capping stones are placed on the top of walls not covered by a roof, spanning their entire width and throwing off the rain and snow, thus keeping the interior of the wall dry. The fewer the number of joints the better the security, and for this reason it is well to form copings with as long stones as possible. To throw water off clear, and prevent it from running down the face of the wall, the coping should project an inch or two on each side and have a throat worked on the under-side of the projections (fig. 7).
Cornice, a projecting course of moulded stone crowning a structure, forming a cap or finish and serving to throw any wet clear of the walls. A deep drip should always be worked in the upper members of a cornice to prevent the rain trickling down and disfiguring the face of the moulding and the wall below (fig. 8).
Corbel, a stone built into a wall and projecting to form a cantilever, supporting a load beyond the face of the wall. It is frequently richly ornamented by carving (fig. 7).
Skew Corbel, a stone placed at the base of the sloping side of a gable wall to resist any sliding tendency of the sloping coping. Stones placed for a similar purpose at intervals along the sloping side, tailing into the wall, are termed “kneelers” and have the section of the coping worked upon them (fig. 7).
Corbel Table, a line of small corbels placed at short distances apart supporting a parapet or arcade. This forms an ornamental feature which was much employed in early Gothic times. It probably originates from the machicolations of ancient fortresses.
Dressings, the finished stones of window and door jambs and quoins. For example, a “brick building with stone dressings” would have brick walls with stone door and window jambs, heads and sills, and perhaps also stone quoins (fig. 7).
Diaper, a square pattern formed on the face of the stonework by means of stones of different colours and varieties or by patterns carved on the surface (fig. 7).
Finial, a finishing ornament applied usually to a gable end (fig. 7).
Gablet, small gable-shaped carved panels frequently used in Gothic stonework for apex stones, and in spires, &c.
Gargoyle, a detail, not often met with in modern work, which consists of a waterspout projecting so as to throw the rain-water from the gutters clear of the walls. In early work it was often carved into grotesque shapes of animal and other forms.
Galleting.—The joints of rubble are sometimes enriched by having small pebbles or chips of flint pressed into the mortar whilst green. The joints are then said to be “galleted.”
Jamb.—Window and door jambs should always be of dressed stone, both on account of the extra strength thus gained and in order to give a finish to the work. The stones are laid alternately as stretchers and headers; the former are called outbands, the latter inbands (fig. 7).
Label Moulding, a projecting course of stone running round an arch. When not very large it is sometimes cut on the voussoirs, but is usually made a separate course of stone. Often, and especially in the case of door openings, a small sinking is worked on the top surface of the moulding to form a gutter which leads to the sides any water that trickles down the face of the wall.
Lacing Stone.—This is placed as a voussoir in brick arches of wide span, and serves to bond or lace several courses together (see Brickwork).
Lacing Course, a course of dressed stone, bricks or tiles, run at intervals in a wall of rubble or flint masonry to impart strength and tie the whole together (fig. 7).
Long and Short Work, a typical Saxon method of arranging quoin stones, flat slabs and long narrow vertical stones being placed alternately. Earls Barton church in Northamptonshire is an example of their use in old work. In modern work long and short work, sometimes termed “block and start,” is little used (fig. 7).
Parapet, a fence wall at the top of a wall at the eaves of the roof. The gutter lies behind, and waterways are formed through the parapet wall for the escape of the rain-water.
Plinth, a projecting base to a wall serving to give an appearance of stability to the work.
Quoin, the angle at the junction of two walls. Quoins are often executed in dressed stone (fig. 7).
 Fig. 9. |
Rag-bolt, the end of an iron bolt when required to be let into stone is roughed or ragged. A dovetailed mortise is prepared in the stone and the ragged end of the bolt placed in this, and the mortise filled in with molten lead or sand and sulphur (fig. 9).
Sill, the stone which forms a finish to the wall at the bottom of an opening. Sills should always be weathered, slightly in the case of door sills, more sharply for windows, and throated on the under side to throw off the wet. The weathering is not carried through the whole length of the sill, but a stool is left on at each end to form a square end for building in (fig. 7).
String Courses, horizontal bands of stone, either projecting beyond or flush with the face of the wall and often moulded or carved. They are frequently continuations of the sills or head lines of windows (figs. 5 and 7).
Scontion.—In a thick wall the dressed stones forming the inside angles of the jamb of a window or door opening are termed scontions.
Spalls, small pieces chipped off whilst working a stone.
Templates, slabs of hard stone set in a wall to take the ends of a beam or girder so as to distribute the load over a larger area of the wall.
Tympanum, the triangular filling of masonry in a pediment between the cornices, or between the horizontal head of a window or door and the under-side of the relieving arch above it. It is often panelled or enriched with carved ornament (fig. 7).
Throat, a groove worked on the under-side of projecting external members to intercept rain-water and cause it to drop off the member clear of the work beneath (fig. 8).
Weathering.—The surface of an exposed stone is weathered when it is worked to a slope so as to throw off the water. Cornices, copings, sills and string courses should all be so weathered.
Voussoirs, the wedge-shaped blocks of which an arch is built up.
Methods of finishing Face of Stones.—The self face or quarry face is the natural surface formed when the stone is detached from the mass in the quarry or when a stone is split.
Saw-face, the surface formed by sawing.
Hammer-dressed, Rock-faced, or Pitch-faced.—This face is used for ashlar-work, usually with a chisel-draughted margin around each block. It gives a very massive and solid appearance to the lower storeys of masonry buildings, and is formed with little labour, and is therefore the cheapest face to adopt for ashlar-work (fig. 7).
Broached and Pointed Work.—This face is also generally used with a chisel-draughted margin. The stone as left from the scabbling hammer at the quarry has its rocky face worked down to an approximate level by the point. In broached work the grooves made by the tool are continuous, often running obliquely across the face of the block. In pointed work the lines are not continuous; the surface is rough or fine pointed according as the point is used over every inch or half-inch of the stone. The point is used more upon hard stones than soft ones (fig. 7).
Tooth-chiselled Work.—The cheapest method of dressing soft stones is by the toothed chisel which gives a surface very much like the pointed work of hard stones.
Droved Work.—This surface is obtained with a chisel about two and a half inches wide, no attempt being made to keep the cuts in continuous lines.
Tooled Work is somewhat similar to droved work and is done with a flat chisel, the edge of which is about four inches wide, care being taken to make the cuts in continuous lines across the width of the stone.
Combed or Dragged Work.—For soft stones the steel comb or drag is often employed to remove all irregularities from the face and thus form a fine surface. These tools are specially useful for moulded work, as they are formed to fit a variety of curves.
Rubbed Work.—For this finish the surface of the stone is previously brought with the chisel to a level and approximately smooth face, and then the surface is rubbed until it is quite smooth with a piece of grit stone aided by fine sand and water as a lubricant. Marbles are polished by being rubbed with gritstone, then with pumice, and lastly with emery powder.
Besides these, the most usual methods of finishing the faces of stonework, there are several kinds of surface formed with hammers or axes of various descriptions. These types of hammers are more used on the continent of Europe and in America perhaps than in England, but they deserve notice here.
