Stonewalls

I’ve never worked with stone.

I do have a reprint of an 1892 book called ‘Fences, Gates, and Bridges: A practical manual.’ It has a brief chapter on stone and sod fences.

Amongst some information on laying stone they show a ‘truck for moving stones’. I don’t know if you could find this online. The truck is very low to the ground with four small iron wheels. Two handles extend to the rear, wheel-barrow style. Heavy planks are laid as a ramp to the top of the wall. The truck is pushed up this ramp, and as it reaches the top, the front pair of wheels drop into a notch carved into the end of the ramp-planks. At this point the truck is lifted by the handles, with the front wheels in the notch as the fulcrum…the stone slides off and onto the top of the wall.

Watch your back 🙂 ….

I have seen a hinged stoneboat before that was designed (I think) to pick up and haul heavy stones with animal traction. I have attached a link beolow where a guy is using one of these to haul round bales with a tractor. I have never persaonlly used one of these types before, but it might be just what you are thinking of. The simple design would be easy to make.

http://www.lilligren.com/homestead/stoneboat.htm

Good question, I have often wondered the same thing. It amazes me how they put all that stone together and mad it stay. I love walking along stone walls when I am hunting and often stop and sit on one to take a rest. I have never built one and would think there is a trick or two we may never know.

hey andy, i have a photo here in a old book showing a four post frame with hack knees like a small barn frame of two bents girted into a box. it straddles the rockwall and has a chain hoist in the top of it setting fairly large stones on a wall. there is a stoneboat and a pair of horses bringing in stone on the other side. they had a fairly deep trench full of rock to start with so there is quite a bit of rock in a wall that we don’t see that is very important to it staying put. still looks like incredibly hard work.

@mitchmaine 26208 wrote:

still looks like incredibly hard work.

Definately, placing heavy stones into precise locations is going to be tough no matter how you do it…

Here’s a somewhat different thought that might be alot easier. You have probably seen those rock filled wire cages the highway crews use to control erosion. You could make some heavy wire cages and simply fill them up with rock. If you are clever about reinforcing the cages to prevent spreading, you could have a nice wall made of rock with perfectly verticle sides. Also, because of the cages, you wouldn’t have to be as careful about rock placement of the size and shape of the rocks/stones involved. In a perfect world, you could use a ramp to elevate your stoneboat above the cage, and push or lever all your rock in without any lifting required.

Actually, now that I think about it, you probably wouldn’t need a full cage. The bottom of the cage would do little and the top would do nothing whatsoever (other than prevent spreading). You could probably get away with two heavy wire fences with heavy wire reinforcements running between the two at regular intervals to prevent the fences from spreading apart. I’m not sure of the forces involved if this fence got very tall, but I bet a field fence would let you get 3 feet or so of height. Maybe even 4 feet would be doable with a reasonable width. It will take alot of rock.

His Exploring Stone Walls is very good too.

http://www.stonewall.uconn.edu/

Being a diehard ox man I am using my team to pull some heavy stones into the backyard for a retaining wall. But I am using the Egyptian technique of rolling the stones up a ramp on pipes. You can easily move a lot of weight that way.
My friends keep stopping by to see how it is going and so far everybody has asked “why don’t you just use the bucket on your tractor”
They will never get it!