Power!

These two photos show progress that is very rapid compared to what I'm used to with just the hammer and chisel. The single photo shows the stone after one hour of work with a diamond-blade grinder and pneumatic hammer and tooth chisel. The double one shows two views of what I did today in two hours with just the pneumatic hammer and again, the tooth chisel. It's true that the finishing stages will be just as slow as before, but I'll sure be able to get to that point more quickly.

What IS this stuff??

The above photos show work on a piece of stone I picked up in Montana, outside Chico Hot Springs. I had high hopes for this stuff because there is a literally endless supply - free for the taking. Well, my diamond blade would cut the stuff just fine, and the diamond cup wheel did a good job of shaping it, but after that, the rest of my tools were completely ineffectual due to the hardness of the stone. I did a little research and found a geological summary of the area with a map and here's the description of what I was working on. "Dacite and dacite porphyry (Eocene) -- Pink to light-gray, fine-grained dacite, and feldspar-hornblende dacite porphyry". The bottom line is, this is an igneous rock similar to basalt and I'd need carbide-tipped tools to work it. Since finishing would be equally difficult, I think it's time to forget about it and move onto the piece of limestone in the picture, which has been patiently waiting for some attention for a couple of months!

Addition to the Metopia series

For the latest metal piece, I thought I'd try some galvanized steel flashing I had in my shop. It's quite thin and I had to strengthen one of the edges with some heavier material which is actually more expensive than aluminum sheet, which surprised me. The finished work is 40" x 10.5" x 1.75" and again, weighs just a pound or two - haven't really checked. This last is one of the appealing aspects of this sheet metal work: they look quite substantial, but will hang on any small nail without trouble, and they
are easy to transport and ship - unlike the stones.