Stonewalls

[near horse]

Not as “pure” as a dry stack wall but have you looked at “slip-forming” stone walls? That’s what the Nearings did when they built their stone house back in the day.

[drafthorsey]

LStone what a great question. I played around with log crane on runners I built to give it a try. Picking UP a rock, and swinging it into place is pretty tough work (almost impossible to set with only one guy working the lift). Looks like unless you use really long poles for lifting where you can get a lot of leverage a couple of men might have trouble getting a 300 pound rock into the air. I favor the theory of a ramp, especially for big stuff. and skid it off the stone boat up a ramp and into place.

As for the old timers …. First you’ve got to understand the rock you’re about to move. A big rock moves side to side to go forward. It takes a lot less time haulng a boulder up to a site with a team of horses or oxen near or onto a ramp, unhooking and bringing them around to other side of the wall and have them pull the stone up a ramp…. rather then lifting it in the air and swinging it into position. Sicklehocks is right on this in his post. A lot of those heavy pry bars found in grand parents sheds, barns or garages were used to help position a big stone. Or dig one out of the ground.

Lifting stone might be a little to modern of a thought. I still use a ramp and crow bar on wall construction even with a crew. For the really big stuff (big boulder construction) cut stone commercial projects I’ll call for a crane. Not horsey but we do have deadlines or fines. Great post!

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