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.
How many people have confused stone mason and Freemason when you’ve told them what you do?
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.
Are you on the square?
They don’t know what they’re doing, so I’ll wager that they’re not on the square, nor the level.
Are you ready to swear right here, right now before the devil?
Maybe
What’s your favourite-size mason jar, and how many stones will it hold?
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!
Oh no, it shouldn’t take a day to get to the cupboard and back. I think OP is dead or maybe just incapacitated or napping.
I’ve not been sleeping well and working 16 hour shifts. Even at my best my memory is not great. Thanks for reminding me about the mason jar, I’ll check the cupboard when I get home from buying lunch.
Does sand count as stones?
Glad you’re still alive, bud.
Does it? It counts as aggregate, and so does small stones and pebbles. What’s the cut-off for the transition to sand from stone? I’m positive that some nerdlinger drew a line in the scale and said “past this is sand!”
I am highly skilled at pedantry and enjoy challenging arbitrary lines. I bet there’s even a way to argue that we’re all stones or made up of the same stuff as them.
Oh so you’re a stone mason? Name 3 stones!
No seriously, what’s your favourite stone to mason?
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.
Those are some pretty walls.
❤️
Question coming from complete ignorance: are you picking through a big pile of stones to find the ones that fit a gap or are you cutting them to fit (or both)? Also, are you a Mason (like a member of the illuminati group)?
Both, but it also depends on what style of stone is being laid. The examples I’ve put up are all random. For ashlar you’ll have either a set pattern of sizes, or a small selection of sizes. You’ll still end up cutting pieces smaller due to needing a proper bond and keeping the pattern.
I am not a Freemason.
What kind of stone is this?
I’m not a geologist. And that rock is covered in dirt. Probably not sedimentary as there’s no obvious striations. 🤷 Granite?
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 🤷
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 🤔
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.
Need your professional opinion on something: what’s the best way to undermine the 12ft curtain wall protecting my enemy’s fortress?
My great-grandfather was a stone mason. My office happens to be inside a (non-military) wall he built.
Do you have access to explosives?
I am advised by legal counsel to say no.
You clearly pay them well enough for the good advice you get.
Tunnel under the wall if you can, light a giant fire, or your not explosives.
Do you think it’s possible that stone masonry is, adjusted for inflation, more expensive today than it was a hundred years ago despite improvements in technology? I.e. Cheaper, shorter lived building materials/techniques generates reduced demand for stone masonry, causing fewer stone masons like yourself to exist and ply the trade, increasing scarcity and therefore cost.
Edit: also, huge admiration for your trade. I love stonework and wish it were more common.
I don’t really think so, my business partner back home was getting $50/sq.ft when he started on his own in the early 80s. Now you’re going to struggle and fight to get paid $20/sq.ft, at least in Vancouver. So the masons are being paid less now than 40 years ago not even adjusting for inflation. And our wages used to include beer basically everywhere in the world, through all time periods until around the 1900s.
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
And pretend acting out the killing of Hiram.
😬 fact check: true
🤦 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?
How much does brick and a half weigh?
Who would win in a fight Freemasons or Stonemasons?
What kind of brick? I happen to be at work, and there happens to be both a scale and an old Red Stock brick, they don’t make those ones anymore, but the one I had on hand weighed in at bang on 4kg.
Edit: newer bricks tend to be a lot lighter. An engineering brick, which has holes in it, is likely less than a kg
Edit²: forgot about the smashup! Stonemasons for sure. Most of the Freemasons I’ve met have been a bit on the older side, and quite unfit. Also stonemasons have a wide selection of hammers, crowbars and trowels. And honestly I am not entirely sure which of the three would suck the least to be hit with. Hammers and bars are obviously blunt force trauma…but I’ve cut the ever loving fuck out of myself reaching into my bag and forgetting to be careful of the trowel. 12 stitches!
What’s your favourite stone building?
Electrician thinking of moving to Scotland from US. Any advice?
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.
Luckily for me I don’t drink
Unluckily for me weed is basically legal here and not there…
Buddy… it’s even worse than you think…maybe… depends on the quality and price you’re used to.
I stopped smoking(read as buying) weed here.
- I’m on a visa, and cannot afford to fuck around on pain of angry wife.
- Cost/Quality ratio is entirely fucked compared to what I’m used to. Further details below.
- I’m just kinda over it at this point. I enjoy mooching a tiny puff here and there, but my tolerance is waaay down from smoking ½oz+ every few days, and greening out sucks when you’re not young enough to bounce back right away.
Point 2:
Having grown up in Vancouver, and knowing quite a few people who grew professionally, some of which still do, before legalisation. The ganja available here is both mid-A/AA and incredibly expensive…and dry as fuck for the most part.
For the quality of weed I would have paid MAYBE $60/oz back home (before legalisation), unless you know a guy, and are really willing to be picky, you’re going to likely pay between £190(Scotland from what I’ve seen) to £380(mostly London, but I’ve seen stuff in the north be that pricey too)… Which…I’m just not really willing to pay that. And also the whole wife thing.If you make it out this way DM me.
What are 3 current buildings you would like to work on and what 3 that no longer exist would you have loved to see in person?
Also because you are a Canadian in Scotland, here a story about an absolute madlad from Scotland who walked across Canada. Walked. With his dog.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/the-national-michael-yellowlees-cross-canada-walk-1.5322480
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.
