James Taite
@jamestaite.bsky.social
Stonemason in Ottawa, Canada. Approaching peak hoser.
beaut of a Dutchman on the return stop of a bellcast wash
look at how well the tooling carries from the old piece to the new just fucking beautiful
look at how well the tooling carries from the old piece to the new just fucking beautiful
November 19, 2025 at 1:34 PM
beaut of a Dutchman on the return stop of a bellcast wash
look at how well the tooling carries from the old piece to the new just fucking beautiful
look at how well the tooling carries from the old piece to the new just fucking beautiful
There are so so many reasons to oppose this bailout of private interest, but I keep coming back to the contrast between the fantastic (though rundown) 60s civic monument they want to demolish and the utter dog they show as it’s replacement
October 24, 2025 at 12:51 PM
There are so so many reasons to oppose this bailout of private interest, but I keep coming back to the contrast between the fantastic (though rundown) 60s civic monument they want to demolish and the utter dog they show as it’s replacement
I love looking at this shit: those chisel marks perpendicular to the joint, along the arris, are where the stone has been pared in. When stones lip when profiles don’t line up, whether an error of the fixer mason or the banker mason, the stone is just cut in place to sweeten, no shame no bother.
October 22, 2025 at 11:52 PM
I love looking at this shit: those chisel marks perpendicular to the joint, along the arris, are where the stone has been pared in. When stones lip when profiles don’t line up, whether an error of the fixer mason or the banker mason, the stone is just cut in place to sweeten, no shame no bother.
In for a colonoscopy ready to take shitposting to a whole new level
October 20, 2025 at 9:17 PM
In for a colonoscopy ready to take shitposting to a whole new level
…The hidden key. Hide the radiating joints inside the stone and make the visible perps vertical.
Artful ruses.
Artful ruses.
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
…The hidden key. Hide the radiating joints inside the stone and make the visible perps vertical.
Artful ruses.
Artful ruses.
But if you didn’t want radial joints? If you didn’t want this arch to look like an arch? If you were so committed to the idea of trabeation that the hint of an arch, even one with a flat soffit, was unthinkable? Then there was another way, a secret way…
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
But if you didn’t want radial joints? If you didn’t want this arch to look like an arch? If you were so committed to the idea of trabeation that the hint of an arch, even one with a flat soffit, was unthinkable? Then there was another way, a secret way…
Even with a horizontal intrados the flat arch still functions as an arch, though maybe less reliably, less faithfully. More likely to fail.
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Even with a horizontal intrados the flat arch still functions as an arch, though maybe less reliably, less faithfully. More likely to fail.
The innovation of the flat arch was to retain those centred joints while dispensing with the circumferential intrados. They have no (or miniscule) rise, but the joints still need to be radial. The secret to their success lies in this stereotomy.
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
The innovation of the flat arch was to retain those centred joints while dispensing with the circumferential intrados. They have no (or miniscule) rise, but the joints still need to be radial. The secret to their success lies in this stereotomy.
…but the principle is the same: for an arch to function as an arch, joints radiate. It’s this geometry—the defining centre—that translates the vertical loads imposed on the arch by gravity into lateral thrust, diverting them around the opening.
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
…but the principle is the same: for an arch to function as an arch, joints radiate. It’s this geometry—the defining centre—that translates the vertical loads imposed on the arch by gravity into lateral thrust, diverting them around the opening.
At their most basic, arches are defined by two dimensions: span and rise. First is the distance between points of support. Second is the height of the arch from its springing point, where the vertical jamb of the opening curves into the non-vertical soffit—or intrados—of the arch.
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
At their most basic, arches are defined by two dimensions: span and rise. First is the distance between points of support. Second is the height of the arch from its springing point, where the vertical jamb of the opening curves into the non-vertical soffit—or intrados—of the arch.
But the oldest and simplest of these sleights of hand is an adaptation of those arcuated forms that come naturally to stone: the flat arch.
Anticipating the stone to fail and crack into pieces you can crack them before the cruel world does. Crack them where you want them to crack.
Anticipating the stone to fail and crack into pieces you can crack them before the cruel world does. Crack them where you want them to crack.
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
But the oldest and simplest of these sleights of hand is an adaptation of those arcuated forms that come naturally to stone: the flat arch.
Anticipating the stone to fail and crack into pieces you can crack them before the cruel world does. Crack them where you want them to crack.
Anticipating the stone to fail and crack into pieces you can crack them before the cruel world does. Crack them where you want them to crack.
Likewise the post-tensioned stonework of outfits like www.thestonemasonrycompany.co.uk, turning odd bits of stone into structural beams and slabs by threading them on steel rod. Cinched tight, the material is put into compression and made able to span amazing distances.
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Likewise the post-tensioned stonework of outfits like www.thestonemasonrycompany.co.uk, turning odd bits of stone into structural beams and slabs by threading them on steel rod. Cinched tight, the material is put into compression and made able to span amazing distances.
So for millennia builders’ ingenuity has been tested, devising ways to give the look of trabeated stonework—to make flat soffits—without having to build trabeated stonework. Artful ruses. Like the ingenious fuckery of 19th & 20th c classicism, hanging stone from steel or concrete structure.
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
So for millennia builders’ ingenuity has been tested, devising ways to give the look of trabeated stonework—to make flat soffits—without having to build trabeated stonework. Artful ruses. Like the ingenious fuckery of 19th & 20th c classicism, hanging stone from steel or concrete structure.
As a structural system, as a method for enclosing space, it’s kinda shit; those soffits are in tension, a force resisted poorly by stone. You either limit spans to the capacity of the material, or it cracks and fails.
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
As a structural system, as a method for enclosing space, it’s kinda shit; those soffits are in tension, a force resisted poorly by stone. You either limit spans to the capacity of the material, or it cracks and fails.
What’s the obsession with level stone lintels on plumb stone columns? The lithified x and y of Euclidian space? Humanity’s post-Ardipithecine upright posture? Cosmic axes of calumet-smoke rising against the flat featureless terrifying extension of the horizon?
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
What’s the obsession with level stone lintels on plumb stone columns? The lithified x and y of Euclidian space? Humanity’s post-Ardipithecine upright posture? Cosmic axes of calumet-smoke rising against the flat featureless terrifying extension of the horizon?
For thousands of years we’ve been building with trabeated stone. For thousands of years it’s been chewed at, chased to abstraction. Repeatedly exhumed and revived, even after Roman concrete, even after Gothic vaults, after Rundbogenstil and Candela’s shells. Keeps coming back from the dead.
a 🧵:
a 🧵:
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
For thousands of years we’ve been building with trabeated stone. For thousands of years it’s been chewed at, chased to abstraction. Repeatedly exhumed and revived, even after Roman concrete, even after Gothic vaults, after Rundbogenstil and Candela’s shells. Keeps coming back from the dead.
a 🧵:
a 🧵:
And the flip-side to the lintel that wants to pass as an arch is the hidden key. Where the limitations of the stone call for an arch, but the appearance of an arch is unwanted, we get an arch in denial, with flat soffit and apparently vertical—not radial—joints.
October 11, 2025 at 2:19 PM
And the flip-side to the lintel that wants to pass as an arch is the hidden key. Where the limitations of the stone call for an arch, but the appearance of an arch is unwanted, we get an arch in denial, with flat soffit and apparently vertical—not radial—joints.
Another window, originally of identical structure: in the process of replacing portions of damaged stone some of the false joints have been made real, and the left-most opening turned into a true arch, with a new keystone.
October 11, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Another window, originally of identical structure: in the process of replacing portions of damaged stone some of the false joints have been made real, and the left-most opening turned into a true arch, with a new keystone.
This window of 3 lights, with what appear to be 3 arches, is really just a pair of corbels extending from the jambs on each side with a lintel in the centre bearing on the twin mullions. This is a structure of simple trabeation/corbelling that wants to pass as a more complicated assembly of arches.
October 11, 2025 at 2:19 PM
This window of 3 lights, with what appear to be 3 arches, is really just a pair of corbels extending from the jambs on each side with a lintel in the centre bearing on the twin mullions. This is a structure of simple trabeation/corbelling that wants to pass as a more complicated assembly of arches.
So sometimes stones are given false joints to preserve that aesthetic, to present the appearance of the structural system—the arch—that they deny. To what end? Arches take more care to cut and build than trabeation, often needing falsework to support the voussoirs until the arch is complete.
October 11, 2025 at 2:19 PM
So sometimes stones are given false joints to preserve that aesthetic, to present the appearance of the structural system—the arch—that they deny. To what end? Arches take more care to cut and build than trabeation, often needing falsework to support the voussoirs until the arch is complete.