I designed it / kinda redrew it, based heavily on an inscription in London (St Stephen's, Walbrook) by John Skelton. I redrew the letters, scanned them, turned that into a font.

@@poorfrankraw Drawing letters well takes a very long time to master and longer than carving me thinks. Never understood why there is no Trajan style fonts with serifs suitable for letter carving. Even a stencil would be good!

@@gcgopro6912 I find some people are good at carving, a similar number good at drawing, a smaller number good at both. I'm more a carver than a drawer. I assume you know of the Trajan font? fonts.adobe.com/fonts/trajan The serifs are a bit weird when you see them at carving size, but you can just finesse and sharpen them as you go: www.poorfrankraw.co.uk/e.jpg

@@poorfrankraw Thank you for the info on the computer fonts. Serifs are always the hardest to get right when being an "improver." On the bottom right serifs do you tap the chisel from left to right. Maybe a detailed video on carving serifs would be of interest? Thanks again.

@@gcgopro6912 I'm right handed so I go right to left, but with right pointing serifs, I sometimes turn the stone around and cut from the middle out to the tip of those serifs (which now point left) as I have more control and can get a better shape that way. It is a good point - serifs *are* tricky and a bit of special attention on them would make for a good video topic. Watch this space :)

You are very welcome 👍

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!

Thank you :) I'm really into this Gutenberg style blackletter at the moment, which really suits the filled technique.

tvm, I wanted to say more but I'd end up making the 3 hr Director's Cut so :/

Excellent, welcome :) Enjoy!

Much appreciated, thank you :)

Thanks Jim, I appreciate it.

Indeed. A future episode will look at letter forms and drawing them by hand.

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.

Well welcome all the same :) Mindfulness is a big thing these days, something which has always been available to those of us who work with our hands, and carving lettering is very calming I find. And you get something to keep at the end! I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel.

Funny you should ask :) Next time I'll be having a look at types of stone. I carve on slate, fine limestone (not too many fossils), sometimes marble. I'll try to find a link to a fantastic letter carver guy in I think Rhode Island, Wes Adams, who recently carved on a piece of Corian - like for kitchen counter tops. I tried carving on a house brick (too soft), and a lot of sandstones are great for building but too soft and/or co=arse for any lettering but huge scale. Hard ceramic tiles - nooo; soft ceramics, probably too soft. Granite is SO HARD, some people sandblast the design and then use special granite chisels to open the bottom of the letters into a V cut. Every locality has their own preferred local material, some more suitable than others. I am willing to try most things but I come back to slate and fine limestone. Wes Adams on Insta: instagram.com/p/C4YMROTuOF2/?img_index=1

Thank you! I did not know that. I'm guessing the fumes are just as evil :/

Absolutely right. Later I'll cover some other techniques which I do/don't use, it's often a personal thing. If the letters are good, nobody can tell how you stood / held the chisel / etc.

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

The saw is great. It is a Rubi DC 250/850. The blade is the one supplied when I bought the saw - 2 years in and it hasn't needed replacing yet. I cut slate, hard limestone, sandstone, marble, up to 75mm cut depth. I recommend it highly. www.buybrandtools.com/acatalog/rubi-dc-250-850-electric-tile-cutter-230v.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI34yvyaaV6wIVSrDtCh0ctAD3EAYYASABEgKDi_D_BwE