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The Granite Kiss: Traditions and Techniques of Building New England Stone Walls
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 693
EAN: 9780881505467
ISBN: 0881505463
Label: Countryman
Manufacturer: Countryman
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 2003-04
Publisher: Countryman
Studio: Countryman
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Editorial Review:
A master stonemason imparts the fundamentals of building traditional New England-style dry stone walls.In this eminently readable primer on the fundamentals of placing stone, Kevin Gardner distills 30 years of experience in building and restoring stone walls into principles and practices that are adaptable to a wide variety of designs and circumstances. He also discusses the history, philosophy, and aesthetics of the craft. In addition to directions on building basic stone walls, he also demystifies steps, wells, ramps, walkways, and many other forms of dry masonry.Along the way, Gardner considers the mythology of the stone wall and its place in the New England imagination. He explores the art in a book that will bring as much pleasure to armchair craftsmen as it will valuable instruction to the beginning wall builder. 20 black & white illustrations.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - not a big fan of this book
I was excited to get this book, being from New England I was looking forward to having a stone wall book focused in that area. Unfortunately I was immediately let down when I received it. When I turned the pages I quickly noticed that there wasn't a single photo in the book! In my mind this is almost a crime, it would be like purchasing a book on sunsets and finding out there were only scattered black and white illustrations inside.
Also, the most knowledge filled tidbits of information ... Read More
Rating:  - The Granite Kiss
I surprisingly enjoyed this book. I purchased a few other stone wall books with the intention of building my own wall. I originally did not buy this book because other reviewers indicated not any pictures & a few drawings (this is true). But it is a easy read & tells of the pleasure of building in addition to techniques.
Rating: - Gets you in the mood
The Granite Kiss is an endearing look at the practical and esthetic aspects of creating and repairing stone walls. The book has an artistic quality with its extra wide pages with pen and ink drawings of walls under construction or old walls still standing. There are no photos.
There is a feeling of working alongside the author while he idly rambles about the task at hand and jobs he has completed in his career. I especially enjoyed his nicknames for the various rock shapes likely to be ... Read More
Rating: - My favorite stone-wall how-to book
Of the half-dozen books I bought in preparation for recycling some of the old stonewalls up through the woods on our farm into a new retaining wall, this is my clear favorite. It is more detailed than John Vivian's Building Stone Walls, particularly when it comes to retaining walls. Because it is not as glossy and illustrated as Haywards' Stone in the Garden or David Reed's Stonescaping (which are, by the way, both excellent in their own right), I'm not as wary about taking it out to the project with ... Read More
Rating: - Two over one, one over two.
This is a wonderful book...it's about stone walls, and about building stone walls, and all the things stone walls have meant and done for 350 years, and what it feels like to live and work in a place where just past the urban sprawl every one of those 350 years blends with this one (and if you look out the corner of your eye there're older times than that hiding in the shadows.)
It's not a homeowner howto, though it's got everything you can learn from a book. It's a book for masons who love their craft, ... Read More
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