# Pointing Irons



## francist (Dec 25, 2019)

I was asked by a friend and colleague recently if I could make a custom pointing iron for him. He’s a stonemason specializing in architectural restoration and conservation, and pretty fussy about his mortars and joints. The “new world style” of beading tools for lack of a better description just don’t do it for him so he wondered if I could build one based on a traditional Scottish pattern.

The idea here with this style of iron is that the straight, broad blade can be drawn along a straightedge for coursed ashlar work where a really tight joint is desired. The profile, a semi-circular bead shape, is pretty typical of late 1800’s stonework at least in these parts. I made him two slightly different sizes — 5/16” width and 1/4” width — but both use the same 3/8” thick blade stock.

For metal I just went with a 1018 cold rolled. It won’t wear the best, but as these are kind of prototype designs we aren’t too worried about that for now. The quickest way for me to break the blanks out was to chain drill around the shapes and clean up afterwards. It looks ugly but it does work, and fairly quickly too.




A while back there was a thread asking if stresses in cold rolled material were something to be concerned about. Well, this is a pretty good illustration in real time — with the two blanks removed from the one piece of bar and placed edge to edge, the combined bow was just under twenty-five thousandths.




I spent a lot of time trying to figure out various ways to hold the work during different operations. Here’s one blank on the clamping plate for shaping the tang for the wooden handle. 




The bead profile was roughed out on the shaper as well using my basic round-nose tool. It won’t do the whole shape in one sweep, but nibbling small cuts to gradually sneak up to the line worked really well. You have to stay focussed though — at 60 strokes per minute a mental slip-up in which direction to tweak the crank can suddenly become very exciting!




I use my clamping plate on my bandsaw as well, it’s really handy for cutting odd-shaped parts.




Here’s the two irons pretty much finished. I tuned up the prows by hand using a round chainsaw file and also eased the sharp heel a tad. This is the same shape as the sample he gave me to work from, so I copied it faithfully.




And here with the handles mounted. I’ve always been a little non-plussed with tang hole drilling in the past but this time I thought of using a step drill (uni bit, Christmas tree bit, whatever, the kind you use for sheet metal). That worked as slick as can be and the tangs drive in very solidly.





So that’s that. My friend will get to try them out within the month I expect, so I’ll see how they perform. Thanks for looking!

-frank


----------



## buffdan (Dec 25, 2019)

Quite nice. Almost a shame to get them dirty


----------



## francist (Dec 25, 2019)

Lime mortar isn’t _dirty_.... 

-f


----------



## mikey (Dec 25, 2019)

Wow, came out really nice, Frank! He should be proud to have these tools.


----------



## benmychree (Dec 25, 2019)

very nice, a professional looking job!


----------



## rwm (Dec 25, 2019)

These are awesome!
Just curious why you didn't use the bandsaw to cut out the initial shapes?
Robert


----------



## f350ca (Dec 26, 2019)

Awesome work, as now expect Francist. 
Tools to be treasured. 

Greg


----------



## francist (Dec 26, 2019)

Thanks guys, your comments are always valued greatly.

Yes the bandsaw would have been ideal but I’ve never liked using the upright mode in mine. For one, the table is a little dinky and too small for my comfort, and for two, it just isn’t as solid as I would like being on the wheeled stand and all. I won’t officially mention reason three being the fact that I’ve never gotten around to making replacement guards for the wheels so it’s a bit unnerving running it in the upright mode without those. I used to do a ton of non ferrous cutting on a dedicated TWS that I ran for years until the guides finally packed it in so it’s not a familiarity thing, just that I don’t find the same comfort level with the 4x6. Plus, at 3/8” thick stock, I’m not sure it would have been able to do it much quicker. Maybe something I should revisit in the new year. In reality, if he ends up wanting more, I’d look into having the blanks done on a water jet machine.

-frank


----------



## Martin W (Dec 26, 2019)

Excellent!
Cheers
Martin


----------



## tjb (Dec 26, 2019)

Excellent work, Frank.

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

Regards,
Terry


----------



## WCraig (Dec 26, 2019)

tjb said:


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


And the tool being used, please!

Craig


----------



## francist (Feb 25, 2020)

tjb said:


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






WCraig said:


> 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.






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



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. 



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

-frank


----------



## tjb (Feb 25, 2020)

francist said:


> 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
> ...


Just beautiful.


----------



## DavidR8 (Feb 25, 2020)

francist said:


> 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
> ...



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


----------



## f350ca (Feb 25, 2020)

Obviously a labour of love Frank. Beautiful work. Lots of old buildings out there to practise on.

Greg


----------



## francist (Feb 25, 2020)

Thanks for the kind words, guys. Makes my day 

-frank


----------

