# Field stone?? Whose field?



## JBM (Mar 31, 2011)

Did the place Fred Flintstone work produce field stone or quarried? I dont remember if there was dynamite on the show or not


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

Ok, that answer is much more helpful. So to Stonecutter, fieldstone hasn't been touched by a chisel (or can be but it changes the nature of the stone.) And it has been collected from a field. And those are the only 2 criteria? JD3 and 6 string mentioned a roundness, from centuries, or millenia exposed to the elements I take it. Is that an inherent nature of "fieldstone"?

Normally what I do when someone asks me for fieldstone is I ask them for a picture of something I like. Often they look at me like I'm an idiot, then I make the whose field cooment. The pics i get are often very different and I also get a lot of well sort of like this but not really. I've never had anyone dissatisfied by what I've given them but I'm still interested in what is "fieldstone" 

And I agree stone cutter that it's easier to say what it isn't; not squared, not having real strong bonding rules, maybe? touched with a hammer but not a chisel??


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

JBM said:


> Did the place Fred Flintstone work produce field stone or quarried? I dont remember if there was dynamite on the show or not


AHHH quarried stone should never be blasted. Maybe with black powder but not with dynamite.


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## stonecutter (May 13, 2010)

JBM said:


> Did the place Fred Flintstone work produce field stone or quarried? I dont remember if there was dynamite on the show or not


He used dino power:thumbsup:


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

stonecutter said:


> He used dino power:thumbsup:


Don't you mean Dino Might


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

dom-mas said:


> Well I guess 2 people understood my question.


No, I think everyone understood your question, knowing that it was a mason asking.

You can talk with your peers (and nosy non-masons) for days about characteristics that are common to stones gathered from fields [in various areas], but in the end that gets you no closer to understanding what the client sees in _his_ head when using the term.

You best chance of being on the same page is always going to be looking at pictures/samples together.


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## stonecutter (May 13, 2010)

dom-mas said:


> Is that an inherent nature of "fieldstone"?



To repeat.....


Weathered or softened from time....not quarried.

Working fieldstone with a saw, hammer,chisel, whatever...the method used only changes the character ..... it is still fieldstone.

I mentioned a few shapes from round to ledge to blocky..fieldstone comes in all forms.


Once again...fieldstone as I understand it is, loose...non-quarried..stone of any kind.


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

Tinstaafl said:


> but in the end that gets you no closer to understanding what the client sees in _his_ head when using the term.
> .


i think you meant in "her" head. guys have no decision making power when it comes to the house.


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

stonecutter said:


> To repeat.....
> 
> 
> Weathered or softened from time....not quarried.
> ...


And to repeat, I'm not looking for the answer to what is technically fieldstone because it's obviously stone from a field, I'm looking for the inherent qualities that make it "fieldstone". And I understand that to you one of those characteristics is weather and "softness". The loose part I don't quite understand.


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## JD3lta (Nov 22, 2009)

Stonecutter keyed in on the differences of field stone based on regional locations. In California they have lava stone. We use Pennsylvania and New York field stone here in Massachusetts and no one is the wiser. Up to 500 miles difference. I think field stone is meant to be relevant with the location. Obviously here in New England it's a 300 year custom.


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## stonecutter (May 13, 2010)

dom-mas said:


> The loose part I don't quite understand.


But the answer was always there...

Loose means...

that the fieldstone was not cut or quarried from a mass of stone. 

It was all by its lonesome, aging for years, to be used by some stonemason and endlessly discussed about in an online forum by those with nothing better to do on Sunday night.


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## stonecutter (May 13, 2010)

dom-mas said:


> I'm looking for the inherent qualities that make it "fieldstone".


All of which have been mentioned already.


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## 6stringmason (May 20, 2005)

The 'field stone' we get is not blasted or cut either. Its a round granite stone, that is dug out of a quarry up north. Supposedly left over stone from the previous ice age as there was a big ice sheet that pushed down from the Canadian region. 

This is what we call field stone. It can be found in fields as well though. Every spring more and more gets pushed up from the frost. Its the same stone they dig from the quarry. 

So now, by somes' definition, since its from the quarry its not field stone, even though its the same stone you get from a field?

Shape wise, to me fieldstone is always going to be round.


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

I don't know if all the qualities have been mentioned before, just the ones that you find inherent. And I appreciate your answers. But I feel that there must, may be others. I am interested in what Stuart45 has to say (if anything) since english masonry is the basis for my masonry (The masonry around here was originally done mostly by Scots but England is pretty close) and has a much longer history than even New Englands.


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

6stringmason said:


> The 'field stone' we get is not blasted or cut either. Its a round granite stone, that is dug out of a quarry up north. Supposedly left over stone from the previous ice age as there was a big ice sheet that pushed down from the Canadian region.
> 
> This is what we call field stone. It can be found in fields as well though. Every spring more and more gets pushed up from the frost. Its the same stone they dig from the quarry.
> 
> ...


Sounds like the fieldstone my friend in Saskatoon uses.


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## stonecutter (May 13, 2010)

6stringmason said:


> The 'field stone' we get is not blasted or cut either. Its a round granite stone, that is dug out of a quarry up north. Supposedly left over stone from the previous ice age as there was a big ice sheet that pushed down from the Canadian region.
> 
> This is what we call field stone. It can be found in fields as well though. Every spring more and more gets pushed up from the frost. Its the same stone they dig from the quarry.
> 
> ...


In Connecticut, a lot of stoneyards sell what they call CT fieldstone. It is dug up from all over the state and is dominantly round, glaciated stuff. 

I think the "field" part is a bit generic too, since you can source stone from places like you are mentioning here too. I never said it only has to be harvested from a field.


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## Tscarborough (Feb 25, 2006)

It is what your customer wants it to be. "Technically", there is no TEK-NOTE on it. The only definition that makes sense is unworked stone. That does not mean that you do not saw the backs or work it with a hammer or chisel, but the exposed surface has achieved it's finish naturally.


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

Right, put the hammer and chisel away. (for the face)


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## Tom Struble (Mar 2, 2007)

Tinstaafl said:


> (and nosy non-masons) .


:blink:...hey:w00t:


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## Fundi (Jan 5, 2009)

Want more ambiguity? It seems masons can't say what field stone looks like, as it varies too much region to region.

We recently bought a place in old mountains and there is granite lying all around. So we pick up 10 m*2 and then while picking up those some more is exposed so we pick those up too. Under those there are more and we pick those up prying them apart with hand. 

Eventually we are using a pry bar and we have a big hole.

All the stones look the same. Is my wall 'field stone" or not? 

this is not the exact pile but looks exactly like what i am picking up.










Around here loose field stone varies region to region in what it looks like. So in another area it would be round.

I could do "field stone" accross the valley from me and it would be round boulders.

I think dom-mas's point is the client needs to show you what field stone looks like.

edit: which is what Tscarborough said better and in less words.


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