Building with Stone

by Charles McRaven

Book Overview

Enhance your life with beautiful and durable stone structures. With easy-to-follow instructions and an approachable style, master stonemason Charles McRaven guides you through a variety of building projects that include walls, dams, bridges, and more. As alluring as a warm stone fireplace, McRaven's contagious love of materials and respect for careful craftsmanship captivates and inspires. You'll discover the beauty that can be created with simple...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0882665502
• ISBN13: 9780882665504
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Storey Publishing
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.6" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

A treasure

This book is informative with good use of photos, which I expect in a book of this type. What else you get, is a really well written and entertaining book as well. The author is humorous and also a blacksmith among other things. He talks about doing things in the old ways with the help of modern contraptions where they will actually help. If you are interested in American History or primitive skills (not to mention building with stone) you should read this. It may even help make you a better person.

A good introduction for the would-be amateur stone mason

An excellent introduction for anyone who is interested in learning more about stone work and masonry. I enjoyed the book for the breadth of coverage, and for the anecdotal stories. It is one thing to be told safety tips and procedures, but the lesson is much more effective with a good story. I had hoped for a more comprehensive discussion of the tools used, how to use them, and how to shape the stone. However, lack of this does not detract from the usefulness of the book. The closest I have come to stonework was moving stones around for landscaping, but now if I were armed with a set of stonework tools, I would be tempted to try something more complex.

Great starter book!

This book was better than I expected. I was hoping for color photographs, but it has B & W only. Doesn't get into a lot of details, but covers quite a few topics on the subject of stone masonry. I agree with previous review. Would have been great if the section on Mortaring Stone could have been more detailed. All in all, a good starting book to refer to.

Little bit of everything.

This book seems to have a bit of everything that has to do with traditional stone masonry. It shows how to build different types of buildings and objects. Pictures are only in Black and White. If your looking for a full colour glossy paged book on stone architecture this is not for you.

Introduction to Traditional Stone Masonry

This is an excellent first book for those who want to learn about building with stone as an old-world craftsman, rather than a money-hungry contractor or assembly-line modern mason. Charles McRaven does not fill his book with theory, but with practical methods and ideas which are true to proper masonry techniques but allow even the most novice to begin to lay stone right away. The anecdotal style of this book makes it an easy read, and inspires confidence to pick up that trowel for the first time!