My Story

My name is Francesco Buffon. I am a  stone mason from Cheivo, Italy. I grew up a the son of a master stonemason. We didn’t have much money but my dad was the best in his craft. Suddenly the everyone in my town started dying. My whole family died from the plague.I used all the money from the hides of cattle to buy myself a ticket to Syria. I had heard my dads dying wish clearly, “Get out of this small town and go make a living make a living where people aren’t getting killed by the minute. Make me proud.” I think of his wish every time I go to work. I had previously apprenticed as a stonemason and my guild found a job for me in Syria to help build a mosque, I gladly accepted. When I got to Syria they had just started on a mosque and they wanted me to carve stones for the towers on top of the mosque. Coming as one of the youngest people building the mosque has been hard but its getting better. The heat is sometimes unbearable while working. This is a big challenged while working. I have so far been working on this mosque for about six months. I have made about 300 stone circular blocks and have been paid pretty well.

Notes from stone carving tools

In stone carving there were lots of different tools used for different stuff. some hammers for carving were tempered differently for different types of stone.

Quarrying pick used to cut out the stone.

Bush hammer used for finishing stone but not used on marble.

point chisels take off a lot of stone.

stone blocks can be produced at about 4 a day while designs that have more complexity can be produced every four days.

Islamic City Notes

Each neighborhood is self sufficient with a well and a place to bake bread a mosque a place for children to learn called a quetap

each town has their own source of revenue

lots of streets that are very small like alley ways.

Castle notes

Castles were built near quarries so that the stone could be transported easily

They were also built near a body of water for protection so that they couldn’t be surrounded during siege.

Castles used mortar to keep stones in place kind of like concrete except made of stone