Manufacture begins!

I returned to the yard at Fyfe Glenrock in Oldmeldrum today, feeling anxious that time is slipping past and more than a little daunted by the task ahead. The yard is extremely busy, with a queue of work waiting to get access to the huge saw blades. The yard manager has kindly agreed to try and slot me in - and after looking at the stones I had delivered agreed to put the smallest to the saw. This is the piece of norite , a type of Gabbro rock : grey with quite sparkly crystals, which I selected from Pitcaple Quarry. In the image above, it is in the centre stack : a light brown colour - this is the crust, which will very probably be removed as we work, to reveal the grey stone.
Tomorrow, hopefully, one end will be sliced off and we will better be able to judge if some of the surface lines are indicators of more serious flaws which could cause the block to fracture during the making process. Even superficially perfect stones can contain internal cracks. I feel pretty nervous, but excited that we are at last tackling what many may consider the 'real work'.