This is an article that you will need to keep, as it is a basic description and glossary of terms that you will need as we tackle stonescaping.
FACE: Not an ugly picture of me, but the face of the stone-that part that will actually be seen or exposed when it is set in a wall or floor. Some stones have an obvious face to them, but others will need to be trimmed or fashioned.
RUBBLE: No relation to Barney or Betty. This type of stone is irregularly shaped without an obvious face to it, and varies in size from a fist-size to 16 or 18 inches. Looks kinda' like rock that you would get from a river.
VENEER: This stone has more of a defined shape to it, and may have more than one defined face to it. Commonly used in walls that attempt to have a flat or smoother surface exposed.
SPLIT-VENEER: When you break a stone and make a veneer out of it, you have a split-veneer stone.This is done with stones that have a defined grain pattern to them.
GRAIN PATTERN: What you find in veneer stones to make a split-veneer. (Yes, that is what is known as sarcastic humor, folks.) In stone, you will often see small thin bands, or rings of color. Sometimes these are weak points in stone, and they are the ideal place to break your stone when you need to shape it.
RIVER ROCK: Rock that comes from rivers, usually round and smooth.
QUARRIED STONE: That's right, rock that did not come from a river. Pretty good! This stone comes from large veins in the earth--from quarries located in the mountains or hills. They are removed with dynamite and are then either crushed or sold to companies like Cascade Block.
FlELDSTONE: Large stones that are either found loose on the ground or embedded in the soil. These are very rustic-looking stones as they often still have moss or lichen on them.
BACKFlLL: A mixture of gravel and rubble pieces that could not be used in the wall, and are placed behind the stone wall to fill the void between the wall and the dirt.
COURSE: Horizontal layers of stone in any project.
JOINT: A joint is the space between two stones. Every stone wall has joints between its courses. A running joint is both when a person is trying to avoid the police during a drug bust, or when the joints in a series of courses fall along the same verticle line. This is to be avoided as they will weaken the stone wall.
STRETCHERS: Stones with long horizontal faces, laid on top of several smaller stones to break a running joint or several joints.
CAP-STONES: Also called coping stone, these are the top stones on a wall. They should have the flattest surface possible and should also be fairly heavy.
SHIM-STONES: Small thin pieces of stone that are used to adjust the height of a larger stone. They can also be used as wedge stones. Because they will show along the face of a wall, they should have an attractive face as well.
ANCHORS, or DEADMEN: Long stones that are set randomly into retaining walls with their length positioned across, rather than along the wall. Because their back ends extend into the dirt or backfill area these stones anchor the wall and give it stability.
CHINKING STONES: Small stones that are used to fill gaps in wider joints between larger stones.
Remember, keep this article on hand for the next series of articles on stonescaping. So until then, see ya'!
Originally published in the Daily Courier August 3, 2000