First cut

8am: a call from Harry, the yard manager at Fyfe Glennrock, to say that the Pitcaple stone was being put through the saw. The school holidays mean less road traffic so I managed to get to the yard to see the last section being cut.

When the end was removed our fears were confirmed - a fairly significant open crack at the side of the stone - which you can see above on the right, holding the water from the wash down.

This is not the healthiest start.

I feel pretty disappointed, (as does Harry, though he assures me that this not uncommon occurrence) and this is compounded by conversations with various managers who tell me that FGR currently has two large projects running simultaneously and almost every moment is accounted for. This will stretch over the next three months. It seems that FGR experience either a feast or a famine of orders and at the moment its the former.

The OMart work will have to be slotted in between the bigger jobs.

One of the problems for me is a limited window of time available, due to other commitments.

Negotiation required....

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'.