10/10/2012

When Searching For Rock Carving Alberta Provides The Solution

By Sharlene Fleming


When in need of perfect rock carving Alberta presents the best solution to go for. This activity began long time ago and owing to permanence of the material, evidence is still present up to today. Rock carving is the process of creating various images, patterns and shapes from stones. This process also refers to the activity of dressing stones by masons or engineers for use in building, architecture and civil engineering.

This activity has several uses and application in the present days than in the old. The creations that result are used for decoration purposes in various entrances and interiors of different places. Captivating shapes such as those of animals, people doing various activities, household items, weapons, automotives, landscapes, plants and buildings among others help in beautifying homes. Ancient societies created their digging, cooking, ceremonial and other tools and weapons from rocks. They also stored important writings and images by engraving them in stones.

Rocks appear in several varieties a factor that gives artists a broad range of quality, color and hardness to choose from. Soft rocks like soapstone, chalk, tufa and pumice are simple to work on. Cheaply available mechanisms like use of harder stones may be used with chalk due to its excessive softness being able to be shaped using fingernails. Limestone and marbles are tougher and require use of iron equipments and abrasives.

Metamorphic stones, granite and basalt are among the most tough options available and are hard to carve even using steel or iron equipments. They are carved by tools made of tungsten carbide tips. Abrasion can still be used. Precious gemstones are worked using special devices with caution to evade breakages. Such gemstones produce jewelery and many other polished items.

Some stones produce a lot of dust particles into the atmosphere when they are being worked. The dust may comprise silica crystals which may cause damage to the lungs. Some cause deadly conditions such as lung cancer. This reason makes it necessary to use a respirator every time such stones are being carved. Mohs scale is the one used to gauge hardness of a rock. Rocks with a low Mohs value are soft while those with higher values are hard.

Carving tools are classified into four categories, that is, percussion equipments for hitting, tools for rough shaping, chisels for cutting and abrasives for erosion. Percussion tools include axes, toothed hammers, adzes, mallets and bouchards. Rough shaping devices include pitching equipments, feathers and wedges.

Those utilized for cutting include points, claw chisels, lettering chisels and pitching equipments. Abrasives entail carborundum blocks, saws, drills, dressing tools, water erosion machinery and grinding and cutting wheels. Advanced procedures such as laser chopping and jet torches apply extreme temperatures to shatter stones. These activities are performed in three basic steps, roughing out, refinement and final stages.

When in necessity for rock carving Alberta ought to be the area to prioritize. Tools found in this area can be applied to carve any shape, image, letter and other artistic designs in any stone surfaces. Specialists in Alberta are exceptionally skillful and their rates are very reasonable. The quality of their work is superior.




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