Category: Divine Stone

Another favorite photo of mine is this one. I don’t know the date of it but likely late 1930’s, sometime prior to the shutdown of work with the arrival of World War II. These cutters are putting the finishing touches on the architectural shapes in this area of the West Front.

They are on this wooden scaffold, above the main doors, focused on the work, preparing it for the carvers. Herbert Photo’s Inc. captured this powerful and majestic image. I can hear the tap-tap of the mallet and hammer on the chisels.

• Favorite Photo Credit – © Indiana Limestone Company. Courtesy, Indiana Geological and Water Survey, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. ILCO ID number NY4442-5-0

Master Mason Steve Boyle has shared with us the mortar formula that he used for setting, pointing and grouting. It was 6 parts sand, 1 part hydrated lime and I part white cement. It is the Indiana Limestone Institute’s standard mix.

• Thanks to Steve Boyle for this information
• Indiana Limestone Institute Handbook

(I am traveling for the next six weeks, so limited time for research. I am going to sprinkle in some of my favorite photos. These are photos that grabbed me instantly when I saw them.) – Roger

This one is by Robert Rodriguez who has documented the Morton Era stoneyard for more than a decade, and is an Artist-In-Residence. I don’t know who the banker mason was, but it would have just been finished. It is still in the cutter’s area and hasn’t joined the stacks of stone out there next to the Cathedral. I imagine he or she is standing to the side, quite pleased to be adding this one to the tower.

It strikes me as a noble photograph of a noble stone that conveys the feeling that beautiful work from the hands of an artisan is a theme that carried the stoneyard forward every day. No matter that the stone might be 200 feet in the air, each one deserved the very best.

• This “My Favorite Photos” by Robert F. Rodriguez is courtesy of Pamela Morton

In early 1979, they put up the stoneyard building. It was on an open area on the north side of the Cathedral. Master Builder James Bambridge designed the building and the work stations. He laid out each step in the process of converting the multi-ton limestone blocks to building units. Then, the apprentices began their training under Master Mason Chris Hannaway including operating the saws and planer. These machines would engage with the stone first, before they got to the banker area. Master Builder Bambridge’s stoneyard layout created an efficient process of turning out finished stone.

As time progressed, more men and women joined the apprentice ranks. Some of these apprentices would become stone sawyers who would prepare the cuboid shaped stones from the massive blocks. Some would work as banker masons carving those stones into intricate geometric patterns. Zinc templates were created in the setting out shop to guide the cutting. This setting out shop was in the basement of the Nave. Later, when Nicholas Fairplay was recruited, a dedicated stone carving area was created. Some would become carvers and adorn the stones with artistic forms such as figures and other ornamentation. Many of them would eventually work as fixer masons. They would use lifting tackle and mortar to place these stones on the building. All of this began with Master Builder Bambridge’s stoneyard.

Bambridge’s Stoneyard Produces

The output of this operation was a compelling amount of finished stone. Each stone in each layer of the Tower drawing became a job ticket. As well, a zinc template was prepared. The small crew of apprentices were producing beautiful limestone building units. All of this was based on the 1929 design of Architect Ralph Adams Cram.

• Cathedral Publication, To Build Again
• Photos courtesy of Pamela Morton
• Cathedral Fundraising Brochure

The first apprentices began to work on cutting and finishing ashlar shaped stones, these being generally rectangular cuboids. In order to complete these stones, they had to cut joggle joints. The hand cutting of these was taught to them by Chris Hannaway very early on. They had to cut the joint into the correct end so that they would match up with the next stone when set in place on the South Tower. It would be five years before these stones would go up on the Tower. By then there would be approximately 8,000 stones waiting in the stoneyard.

How Joggle Joints Were Used In Erecting The Tower

This type of joint is used when a stone is mortared to an adjacent stone with corresponding grooves keying the stones together when the mortar sets up. According to Master Mason Steve Boyle, this was common practice in load bearing masonry along with “frogging” of the joints. “Frogging” is where the joint is roughed up with a point or chisel. Sometimes small pebbles were dropped into the joint to further lock the stones together.

“On the Tower, the method we used for mortaring the vertical joints was to initially point up the joints front and back and after the initial set, pour them full with grout.“

– Stephen Boyle

Boyle goes on to indicate additional setting techniques for other shaped stones. He says, when setting trade work, e.g. the gablets, where the bed joints for many of the stones were not horizontal, it was not practical to spread the bedding mortar in the way that ashlars and quoins would be bedded. These stones were dry set on packings. The front and back of the joints were packed with oakum and subsequently poured with grout. Similar grooves were field cut into the joints of the stones prior to setting that were specifically to help the grout flow freely and reach all surfaces of the bed or joint. The oakum was removed after the initial set of the grout and the joints pointed with mortar.

• Special thanks to Steve Boyle and Timothy Smith for the information in this post.