Library Research

Book Notes;

• The master mason was highly paid, often a foreigner, and traveled from castle to castle to supervise construction.
• Under the master mason worked free masons. These skilled masons could cut freestone into any shape required.
• The lowest grade of mason was the rough mason. He cut simple shapes, and prepared complex work for the free mason.
• Stone masons had a little shop next to the construction site were all of the stone masons worked; free masons, rough masons, and master masons (bossed them around)
• There was a banker mason, who worked on a bench. Using chisels, gouges and saws, he cut the stone to the drawn patterns
• The paste for the stone was lime, sand and water. This is how bricks and stone was made for the buildings.
• Used pulley to bring stone to high places
• They were the most highly paid and respected.
• Before the 14th centenary, they worked alone in lodges, and had their own trade
• Talked when worked about trade secrets, ate in work shop
• Masons had their apprenticeship at the site itself
• Apprenticeship was seven years.
• The most talented went to be master masons, while others were free and rough masons
• Heavy Lump (a tool) – The lump hammer was used for hitting hammer-headed chisels in the rough shaping work. The softer the stone, the heavier the hammer.
• Squared up (a tool) – The square was one of the mason’s most important tools. It was used for making sure corners were straight.
• Scoring a curve (with tool)- The mason had to mark out the stone to show him where to cut or carve. To make a curved line parallel to the edge he used a box trammel. Holding to wooden handle firmly against the edge, he dragged it along. The trammel point moved across the stone, scoring a line.
• Dividers (a tool) – Dividers, or wing compasses, became the masons’ special emblem. They were used mainly to measure a distance on a template, and then transfer the measurement to a piece of stone.
• Pitcher This (with a tool)- Every single stone in a cathedral would have taken  about a day to cut and finish. Because it was heavy and expensive to transport, the stone was cut approximately at the quarry. At the building site, the masons’ first job was to finish cutting the rough stone with a big curved saw. Then he used a hammer, a heavy, blunt chisel called a pitching tool, and a punch to chip off larger lumps and produced nearly straight edges.
• An apprentice mason had to learn to handle a bewildering array of chisel.
• Each mason owned his own tools, all of which bore his personal mark. They usually passed to generations.
• The design of modern masonry tools has changed little since medieval times.
• The pattern, or template, for each stone was cut out of a board, leather, or parchment and laid over the stone for masons to copy.

Add onto Story;

• I am a free mason
• My father gave me his father’s tool set as a sign of how proud he was of me.
• I’m working on a church in my town

About Architecture;

Books I used;

• Medieval Life
• Cross-Sections Castle