Seamless Perfection

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Photograph ? Clyde H. Smith/F/Stop; Illustrations ? Douglas Merrilees and Ralph Scott

Building Mortarless Stone Walls

IF YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT, it seems that, written word aside, the most enduring monuments to man's creativity and hard work are built of stone. The Pyramids, in Egypt, the Great Walls of China and Peru, temples most everywhere from Latin America to India, the castles of Europe, and the mile upon mile of stone walls running through our own New England countryside were all laid by hand and without a speck of mortar.

They endure in part because rock is as near a definition of "forever" as exists. But more important is their main construction ingredient—gravity. In a properly built stone wall each rock sits square on the ones below it, and so long as gravity keeps pulling, that wall is going to stay put.

So, here's how to go out and build a really permanent monument to yourself. Do it right—square, plumb, and well-tied throughout—and the wall will be standing long after you and I and all our other accomplishments and failings are forgotten.

First, get a pair of well-fitting steel-toed boots with ankle-, or better yet, calf-length uppers made from stiff, thick leather. Next, buy a pair of horsehide work gloves or a pair molded of rubber with grit imbedded into the palm and fingers. These gloves work well when gripping stones, and the boots will keep your toes from getting dented when you drop a boulder on your footwhich is bound to happen at one time or another. Finally, be sure you have the needed time and ambition.

There is no such thing as a half-built stone wall. It's either a wall or a stone pile. And to get from one to the other takes a lot of lifting—a cubic foot of rock weighs the better part of a hundred pounds.

So a little decorative wall only three feet high, two feet wide, and 20 feet long weighs some five tons or more (depending on the amount of air space built in) and comprises a thousand or more average-size stones. If you have to fetch stones from somewhere, there is the loading and unloading in addition to the building to consider. That little 20-foot wall can have a man lifting well over 20 tons of dead weight before it is finished.

(If you're old enough to remember listening to Fibber McGee and Molly or Your Hit Parade—before television—I strongly suggest you get your physician's okay before taking on a stone wall, especially if you're a desk worker and unused to strenuous labor.)

In any event, plan to take your time and use carts, ramps, barrows, and levers to move larger stones. There's little point in hurrying to complete a wall that will likely endure into the next millennium. And no point at all in busting a gusset doing it. There's a right and a wrong way to lift. Just keep your back straight and the stones close to your body. Lift with your legs and arms, not with your back—at least not if yours is as easily sprung as mine.