DryStoneGarden

cabernet stone wall

This cabernet stone wall (not built by me) is a good example of how a wall looks when you build using a stone grinder. It has extremely regular courses and a very clean face, and every stone is rectangular, and I know, from working with cabernet myself, that the stone didn’t come like that in the pallet. The builder used a grinder wheel to straighten the sides and remove any unevenness.

cabernet stone

Personally, I find it unpleasant to use a grinding wheel so much and I like walls to look a little more handmade. I like to have some rough faces and some irregular joints. I think the different size and shape of the stones adds visual interest; that’s why you use stone instead of brick. But that said, this is a nice looking wall; the eye slides across it, very nice and very smooth. I know this wall because a potential client pointed me to this wall and told me that this is exactly what she wanted. I’m sure she liked it better than the cabernet walls I’ve built. 

cabernet stone with grinder scars

Up close you can see the white grinder scars along the tops of the stones, from the grinder wheel sanding away the stone. Old school dry stone wallers hate grinder scars, but most people don’t notice. If you can’t see the scars in the photo, you probably wouldn’t notice them in the wall either. A few more photos are below.

cabernet stone shaped with a grinder

cabernet stone

ryan 1/30

Tags: cabernet

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 4:58 pm and is filed under stone, walls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.