The Granite Kiss: Traditions and Techniques of Building New England Stone Walls

A master stonemason imparts the fundamentals of building traditional New England-style dry stone walls.

In this elegant, literate primer, a master stonemason imparts the fundamentals of building traditional New England dry stone walls, along with thoughts on the history, aesthetics, and philosophy of the craft of placing stone. Author Kevin Gardner defines "the granite kiss" as "that instantly discouraging, and inevitable, experience in stone work when a fingertip or two fails to escape the contact point between two large stones on the occasion of their first meeting." In this eminently readable primer on the fundamentals of placing stone, Gardner distills 25 years of experience in building and repairing New England-style dry stone walls into clear, step-by-step instructions. In addition to directions on building basic stone walls, he also demystifies steps, wells, ramps, walkways, and many other forms of dry masonry. Detailed illustrations throughout by Guillermo Nuuez bring the stonemason's craft to life. Along the way, Gardner considers the history, aesthetics, and philosophy of placing stone in a book that will bring as much pleasure to armchair craftsmen as it does valuable instruction to the beginning wall builder. 30 black and white illustrations Glossary Bibliography Index. Features a foreword by Susan Allport, a well-known authority on the stone walls of New York and New England and author of Sermons in Stone Unique focus on the rounded, hard-to-use fieldstone of New England 30 detailed illustrations are both beautiful and instructive