Surface FinishesIntroduction for Stonemasons

Stonemasonry Department 2012

Plane Face and Broached

Plane faced stone is stone which has been left with a fine chiselled finished and then polished until there are no longer any visible chisel marks. This finished is often found on ashlar stonework.

Broaching is carried out using a fine tipped mel-point to work along lines (normally 8-12mm apart) and leave a “furrowed” effect. This is commonly found on ashlar stonework.

Dabbed and Sparrowpecked

Dabbing is carried out using a mel-point to leave a number of identical “dabs” all pointing in one direction and evenly spaced. This surface finish is often found on ashlar and snecked rubble.

Sparrowpecking is very similar to dabbing with the difference being that the “dabs” are much closer together, do not face in a single direction and the whole face of stone has been removed. This is normally done using a mel-point or a teeth tool.

Tooled and Chevroned

Tooling (droving) is produced by striking a 2 inch chisel against the surface of the stone to leave an indentation. This surface finish is often left at a 45 degree angle or around the margins of a bull-faced stone

The chevron surface finish is produced using either a mel-point or ¼ inch chisel to leave a series of parallel and roughly equidistant arrows. This finish is commonly found in Yorkshire.

Bull-face and Split-face

Bull faced stonework has been cut to a rough depth and then pitched to working lines to produce a finish which gives the impression of being a split stone. This finish is commonly used in various styles of rubble walling.

Split faced stonework is similar in appearance to bull faced but tends to have a planer surface. It is common in snecked and coursed rubble walling and particularly common for pre-cast (artificial) stone

Reticulated and Vermiculated

The reticulated surface finish is produced by sinking five sided shapes, seperated by ribs, below the surface of the stonework. It is a very time consuming surface finish and is normally only used sparsely on prestigious buildings.

Vermiculated surface finishes resemble reticulated but instead of five sided shapes sunken below the surface, the shapes are randomly sized and often curved. This surface finish is also very time consuming.

Hammer Dressed

Hammer dressing resembles a combination of dabbing and bull faced stonework and is produced using a hammer and cleura. This surface finish is commonly used throughout Scotland.

Developed by The Stonemasonry DepartmentCity of Glasgow College

2012