Letter cutting in stone

Cut by hand.

Headstones, lintels, cills and house names, drawn out full size and cut with a mallet and chisel.

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02

Every letter is drawn first.

Nothing is set from a font and sent to a machine. The inscription is drawn out at full size, traced onto the stone and then cut, which is why the letters sit differently on a curved top than they would on a flat one.

  • Drawn full size on paper
  • Traced, then cut with a mallet
  • Painted, gilded, or left bare
03

The stone decides the letter.

Slate takes a fine serif and holds it for centuries. Limestone is softer and wants a heavier letter that will not weather away in forty years. We will tell you which one your inscription wants.

50 mmthe smallest letter worth cutting by hand

04

A churchyard has rules.

Most parishes and cemeteries set a maximum size, a list of permitted stones and often a rule about gilding. We check the regulations before quoting and submit the application for you.

Faculty applications usually take six to ten weeks

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One inscription

What you are actually paying for.

A cut letter is not a printed one. Every part of it is a decision somebody made with a chisel, and all of them are why it will still be readable when the stone has weathered back.

  1. 01The V cut
  2. 02The serif
  3. 03The word space
  4. 04The weathering
From the first call

Twenty six weeks, and most of it is waiting.

The cutting is the quick part. A new grave has to settle for six months at least before anything can be fixed on it, so the weeks below start from the day the ground is ready.

  1. Week 1

    The first conversation

    Usually on the telephone. We ask what is already in the churchyard, and what the family wants it to say.

  2. Week 3

    A drawing

    The whole inscription drawn out at size, so you are looking at the letters themselves rather than a font on a screen.

  3. Week 6

    The application

    The drawing goes to the parish or the cemetery office, and then we wait for it to come back approved.

  4. Week 20

    On the banker

    Two to three weeks of cutting for a standard inscription. Longer in granite, and longer again if the stone is being shaped.

  5. Week 26

    Fixing

    Set on a concrete foundation to the churchyard's own specification, and the ground around it made good.

By the numbers

What a stone actually weighs.

180 kga standard Portland headstoneTwo people and a trolley
75 mmthe usual thickness of a churchyard stone
40 mmthe height of a standard inscription letterRoman capitals
3 hoursto cut one letter by handHalf as long again in granite
6 monthsa new grave must settle before fixing
23 caratthe leaf, when a letter is gilded
A stone is going to be read by people who are not born yet. That is the whole reason to cut it slowly.
Tom Aldis, letter cutter
Enquire

Ask about a stone.

Tell us where it is going, whether it is a new stone or an addition to one already there, and roughly what it needs to say. We reply with a drawing fee, a price range and the next date on the banker.