With square-raised headstone letters, the letter is left polished and shiny, and the surrounding space is sandblasted down 1/8 of an inch and then chiseled smooth. V-tooled headstone letters are created similar to skin-traced letters, but also involve hand chiseling.
Sandblast engraving natural stone neighborhood signs. This is a glimpse of the process I use to deeply engrave text and images into large rocks.
Sandblasting, Traditional Granite Engraving. Around 1930, after many years of strictly using hammers and chisels, sandblasting become a popular engraving method. This method includes the use of vectorized stencil that are placed on the granite, before sandblasting.
sandblasting letters on graniteamaterCreated with AquaSoft SlideShow Ultimate:
Skin cut letters (1/32" to 1/16" shallow cut) are best for black granite and whenever you do not provide a panel. V-sunk lettering on natural stone does not need a panel for contrast. Use a paint like Lithichrome that is specially designed for stone.
Sandblasting is considered one of the most effective methods for engraving headstones and uses an air compressor to shoot small particles of sand through a hose to erode the granite surface. Prior to sandblasting, a rubber stencil of your custom design is cut and placed on the headstone.
I thought I'd share some efforts I'm making to create DIY stone memorials using sand-blasted lettering. My ultimate goal is to be able to make 6" x 12" x 0.5" black granite footstone...