I forgot to take pictures of the stones from the start, but this is pretty close to what I started with. The large stone in the background (with the square on it) is what formed the tablet. The piece in the front is
the fountain. At this point I had used a drill and feather and wedges to split the large piece off the stone in the back and had started cutting the hole in the fountain with the diamond chainsaw. I had also drilled a 16" deep
3/4" hole in the center of the fountain stone where the water will flow.
After cutting the hole with the diamond chainsaw. Then half of the front was ground smooth and polished. No pictures of that.
For the tablet, the large stone was first split using feather and wedge. I probably should have drilled from both sides, but didn't, the resulting split left me with a stone that need a bit of work to get a level surface.
The bottom piece was discarded. The top piece will become the tablet.
To level out the stone I cut a criss cross pattern using a 14" gas cut off saw. Then knock out the cubes with a 1" roughing chisel.
Knocking out the cubes.
After knocking out the cubes, stone is still rough.
Gratuitous crane shot!
Squaring up the stone by splitting with feather and wedge. First a series of 4" deep 3/4" holes are drilled using a large hammer drill, then the feather and wedges are placed in the holes. Hit with a hammer repeatedly forcing the stone to split.
Another round of criss cross cuts, this time only about 1-2 cm deep.
After knocking out the pieces.
Grinding the stone smooth.
Grinding done.
The design traced on to the stone.
The design was based on this version of the Double Happiness symbols.
I used a 5" diamond blade to make cuts around the pattern. Although I cut too close in places. I used a 1" roughing chisel and a 3/8" point to carve the symbols.
After roughing out the symbols I used an automotive style air hammer and point bit to remove more stone and add a "pointed" texture. The automotive air hammer bits are
hardened steel but are worn down by the granite.
I went through 1 bit, but I had owned it for 8 years and never used it while working on a car, so no big deal.
After the pointing.
After starting the polishing with 30 grit diamond pad. I used a 4" wet grinder-polisher with diamond pads.
Close up of the stone after sanding with 30 grit.
To complete the polishing 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000 grit and finally a black polishing pad were used. The polish turned out OK, but not counter top quality. More practice is needed. Not shown is the technique I used to remove the
drill marks from the side of the stone. For that an oxygen acetylene torch was used to heat the stone to spall
pieces off.
Installing the stone.
Installed. Look close, water coming out and everything! There is a reservoir at the front of the planter. Pink muscovite gravel was used around the stones.