Pointing Irons

Would love to see some follow-up photos of stone work using them.


And the tool being used, please!

Craig



Well it’s been a while, but as promised here’s a few shots of the irons being used and what they produce.

The joints have been raked of all old mortar and the new lime mortar is packed in using standard trowels. The object is to fill the joint fully and evenly, but not necessarily worry about being pretty at this stage. Once the filled joints have set in for a little, the pointing iron is brought into play to create the bead profile. In one or two passes, the smooth bead is created in the soft mortar. These irons work exceptionally well, and the joint is straight, crisp, and very smooth with no pulling or dragging.
256A0B3D-3E16-46C4-90C7-242D71755B6B.jpeg
F4596E4E-8F09-4429-9D52-CCF0A1F0F589.jpeg


After the beads are formed, excess mortar on either side is flicked off and the joint is further refined.
96AA8FF8-A1CA-4376-9D9A-309FAF10B6C0.jpeg

And finally the finished joint at close to full cure. Remaining sand on the surface as well as any leftover staining around the edges will rinse off later leaving a clean, crisp, and fully-formed raised pointing bead. It’s still close to freezing at nighttime here and with traditional lime mortar that’s not good, hence the packing blankets while the mortar cures.
B7F62209-1F71-441C-8AEF-2D8506EDB3C1.jpeg

So there you go, thanks for looking (again)!

-frank
 
Well it’s been a while, but as promised here’s a few shots of the irons being used and what they produce.

The joints have been raked of all old mortar and the new lime mortar is packed in using standard trowels. The object is to fill the joint fully and evenly, but not necessarily worry about being pretty at this stage. Once the filled joints have set in for a little, the pointing iron is brought into play to create the bead profile. In one or two passes, the smooth bead is created in the soft mortar. These irons work exceptionally well, and the joint is straight, crisp, and very smooth with no pulling or dragging.
View attachment 314741
View attachment 314742


After the beads are formed, excess mortar on either side is flicked off and the joint is further refined.
View attachment 314743

And finally the finished joint at close to full cure. Remaining sand on the surface as well as any leftover staining around the edges will rinse off later leaving a clean, crisp, and fully-formed raised pointing bead. It’s still close to freezing at nighttime here and with traditional lime mortar that’s not good, hence the packing blankets while the mortar cures.
View attachment 314744

So there you go, thanks for looking (again)!

-frank
Just beautiful.
 
Well it’s been a while, but as promised here’s a few shots of the irons being used and what they produce.

The joints have been raked of all old mortar and the new lime mortar is packed in using standard trowels. The object is to fill the joint fully and evenly, but not necessarily worry about being pretty at this stage. Once the filled joints have set in for a little, the pointing iron is brought into play to create the bead profile. In one or two passes, the smooth bead is created in the soft mortar. These irons work exceptionally well, and the joint is straight, crisp, and very smooth with no pulling or dragging.
View attachment 314741
View attachment 314742


After the beads are formed, excess mortar on either side is flicked off and the joint is further refined.
View attachment 314743

And finally the finished joint at close to full cure. Remaining sand on the surface as well as any leftover staining around the edges will rinse off later leaving a clean, crisp, and fully-formed raised pointing bead. It’s still close to freezing at nighttime here and with traditional lime mortar that’s not good, hence the packing blankets while the mortar cures.
View attachment 314744

So there you go, thanks for looking (again)!

-frank

Wow, that is some nice work. I see that profile on old stone work all over town. Nice to see it being reproduced with your help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Obviously a labour of love Frank. Beautiful work. Lots of old buildings out there to practise on.

Greg
 
Back
Top