OpenTube

Cutting a Letter in Stone

andrew whittle

420,801 views

A demonstration of a technique called 'chopping' used to cut deep letters in limestone, slate or marble.

20 Comments

@The25bear 10 years ago

It's 2am and I'm watching someone carve an R into stone. What a night

@napsasasa 10 years ago

no wonder it took 40 days to make the 10 commandments

@heru-deshet359 12 years ago

You may think "OK, that doesn't look too hard". Then you see that perfect "O". Yeah, totally bad ass craftsman.

@andrewtwhittle Creator 15 years ago

The stone is a Limestone called Pondfree from Purbeck in Dorset, thank you for the compliment.

@DatCupcake 12 years ago

I don't know why, but this is just so memorizing to watch.

@danoive 10 years ago

This video brings a sense of satisfaction I am unfamiliar with. I've never carved stone, or anything for that matter, but this touched me.

@WHCAudio 10 years ago

I feel like I could get really stoned and sit and do this all day.

@mobiusII 7 years ago

When I see this, I think about how it must have sounded when hundreds of stone workers carved the heiroglyphics into all those Egyptian monuments.

@franktimmermans6435 13 years ago

I have been working for a masonry for 23 years. Experience enough. Now I have started working for myself. I go of my clients. to the graveyard and cut the letters on the gravestone. I am now 54 years old and after all those years, I still find the work very satisfying.

@butchblosc 12 years ago

You need to see something like this in order to have an appreciation for the work involved next time you see a gravestone or something similar.

@davidking3311 9 years ago

All with the same chisel, quite impressive.

@smasica 9 years ago

Heartening to see that old world skills aren't dead. Kudos.

@cruspotato 10 years ago

this is oddly calming to watch ....

@MarshButcher 15 years ago

This is truly an art form. I wish I had the gift to do this. Excellent video!!

@bethinnocence5111 9 years ago

I am amazed at the skill, patience and at times very delicate touch...I imagine a hundred Roman letter-cutters tink-tink-tinking away at magnificent edifices to write things, great things...but in a dark little corner of my mind (which resembles Mr Whittle's dungeon/workshop), I couldn't help but visualize Brian and his "Romanes eunt domus" and the Centurion...

@SquirrelsForAll 6 years ago

Good Lord, I'd surely make an irreparable error at the very end!
Incredible work from a true master. WOW!

@MattSlapps 6 years ago

This was the “oddly satisfying” part of the Stone Age

@meandmyevo 12 years ago

Jeez! And I thought I wrote slow!

Just kidding, this is amazing to watch. Thank you so much for sharing this lovely art form!

@theuniversityofeverything8159 9 years ago

Now THAT is a SkILL, I admire you Andrew.

@Dietpepsiahh 9 years ago

I am a Historian and I love this, there are so many things in the old world that were made just like this but the history books make no mention of exactly how it was done.