Ask Me Anything

Surprisingly only one! That one person was quite drunk.

Though my grandfather on my dad's side was a Freemason, I was never really tempted to join. That said, it would probably do wonders for my side hustle, I'm not great at selling myself. I get most of my side work from word of mouth, and really can't be bothered to make a website or FB page.

Shit....uhmmm.....let me check? I have the one I usually put the hot sauce I make in the cupboard somewhere. I'll get back to you!

Right. So most of what I worked with in Canada was granite and basalt. And the style of Random we mostly did back home is a very different kind of Random Rubble than what gets done here in Scotland. Third picture.
Pictures below 👇

Can't really say what's my favourite stone. I miss doing stuff like what's in the first and second picture in granite. There's a lot of sandstone and whinstone(this is kinda a catch-all, includes: basalt and dolerite [igneous] and chert [sedimentary]) used in the part of Scotland I'm in.

I guess my favourite stone to work with is the one that looks really fucking good when I'm done?

Below is not something I built, it's a maintenance job. Remove the fucked mortar and repointing with new.

Bro....if you don't show me the numbers...I can't help you out...

Do you have access to explosives?

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.

I'm not a geologist. And that rock is covered in dirt. Probably not sedimentary as there's no obvious striations. 🤷 Granite?

Make sure your certs are valid here, as soon as you're able to take the CSCS safety course, and get your trades card. Cost of living isn't insane, but wages are pretty low. Do not expect to be able to purchase alcohol at a shop before 10am or after 10pm.

Here's a link to figure out how your qualifications stack up in the UK.

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....

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.

Send me a pic? Top and bottom of where the counter meets the sink.

So beyond my opinion on the existence of (un)cultured stone at all? It's probably a bit worse than the harder stones( granite, basalt, slates) and about on par with stuff like sandstone and limestone.

"Cultured" stone is an affront to nature, and no one who calls themselves a stone mason should be willing to install it....unless the price is exceptional...

What it started out as, and is still claimed (falsely, for the most part) to be, was ground up stone that was deemed "unusable" that is mixed with cement and cast into a small assortment of shapes. For the most part, in my experience, cultured stone today is literally just precast concrete that MIGHT have a dye added integrally, but is likely dusted on after being removed from the mold but before it fully cures. It's lifespan is very short. It's colour fades within a few years if not sooner. And most of the people who install it do subpar work.

Way ahead of you. I technically work for the government doing conservation on historic monuments. Tidy pension, salary wage, not pressed hard, and possibly moving into a management position soon. I miss the outside world, and the sedentary pace here fucks me off, but it's well easier on my body.

The thing with apprentices is absolutely real. We just had an apprentice who has essentially fired himself. He's got talent, if he wasn't so up his own ass with entitlement and had an actual work ethic, he could be the real McCoy. And that's around half the apprentices I've dealt with. I'd love to blame it on the youth and lack of gumption or whatever, but it's just people not wanting to work hard....

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.

Biggest:

This is one wall on a 7 tower site. If I remember right it was close to 75000m²(800ksq.ft-ish). Myself and 4 other masons rocked it.

Proudest:

The customer had to be talked out of going with 1mm joints. They settled for 5-10mm. This is cladding, pin and bracket mechanical. If it had been full depth stone, 200+mm, we probably could have done it. The stone was more in the range of 75mm+/- and we needed the room to accommodate the brackets.