Most letter carvers I have met don't mask up for carving slate - there isn't too much airborne dust with hand tools, but they do for sandstone or anything with a lot of quartz inclusions. Silicosis is nasty. Any use of a grinder or waterless saw will need masking. My bridge saw is water fed so it is basically dust free, I rarely have to resort to the angle grinder.

I was a woodwork teacher about 100 years ago but never carved lettering (or anything else) in wood, so I can't offer any comparisons, but at least you won't have to deal with grain... not exactly anyway... slate layers can be tricky at times. A nice medium limestone would be good to start on.

@@poorfrankraw Interesting ! Can you recommend me a place for purchasing tools and stone ? I’m also in the UK btw.

@@RovexHD Sure, check out the description below this video, lots of tool links there: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ociZg7p0zcvFcWw.html

I have always used the 1.5 lb dummy as my work tends to be middle sized I guess. I can certainly carve small letters with the same dummy, but for larger work (say letters bigger than 50/60mm) people do tend to go with a bigger hammer. Bigger chisel for larger letters, more stone being removed, a larger hammer makes it easier.

@@poorfrankraw Makes sense. Thank you!

It is just a ligature - a combined character made from two letters. On old inscriptions you see them a lot. www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&sca_esv=a09c2d496720e925&sca_upv=1&q=ligatures+in+carved+lettering