SUNDIAL SECTIONS:

Sundials Home

History of Sundials

Why the Sun Dial keeps time

Developing and Making Sundials

Sundial Materials

Sundial Hour Lines Lay out

Sundial "Furniture"

Declination Lines of Sundials

Portable Sundials

Interesting Sundials of the World

SUNDIAL MATERIALS - Page 18

We recommend taking a sample piece to a commercial stone cutter, and ask him for advice as to the best way to cut the lines in that piece. He will gladly help you, show you the tools needed and where to obtain them. Or if you are stubborn there is nothing to do but struggle with the job and if at first you don't succeed, try again. We know of one man who bought a small electric handy tool (quite expensive, about $45 in 2003) with a variety of abrasive wheels and drills, which worked swiftly without chipping on the softer rocks. If ordinary rock cutting chisels, drills, etc., are used with a hammer or mallet, you will save much grief by pasting a carefully drawn plan of the sundial on the stone. The drawing should be made on a not too heavy soft paper; then the lines are cut into the stone, through the paper. The paper will retain the outline of the design until it is cut, and acts as a safeguard against chipping. The limestone sundial was recently given to Boston College in Newton, Massachusetts, by a stonecutter who is a sundial fan. Note the small conical bronze gnomon, and the shallowly scalloped sundial Figure, to bring out the lines.

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