Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100123 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
A Thoreauvian do-it-yourself guide. -- Todd R. Nelson, Christian Science Monitor

About the Author
For more than 30 years, Kevin Gardner has been a stone wall builder—designing, constructing, restoring, evaluating, and teaching how to build traditional New England-style dry stone walls. Gardner has participated in major restoration projects and training workshops at Canterbury Shaker Village, Acadia National Park, and many other historical sites in New England. He is also an award-winning writer and producer for New Hampshire Public Radio. He lives in Hopkinton, NH.

Customer Reviews

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 are quotes the author uses from other stone masons. I recommend their works instead; Charles McRaven's Stone Primer , and John Vivian's Building Stone Walls (a good mix of photos and illustrations, all in B&W, but less expensive than most.)

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.

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 found in any imperfect rockpile and the relationships the shapes may have to each other in a completed wall. All in all, stone wall building is a task of patience and persistance - which the author relays in topics such as: spreading the "good" rocks out; working with rocks that are not perfect blocklike shapes, time management; and what is likely to stand the test of time.

This is a book to get you into the slow and methodical, but contemplative mood for learning and practicing this dying art.