Of Stone and Laying

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on April 30th, 2019, 11:28 pm

32 Spring 519 (Further continued)

Having left the library, Crylon found himself once more heading to the Seaside Market.

He had visited earlier that day to find a book and some things to write with. But it had occurred to him that while he had some additional knowledge of masonry, some of the basic premises, he had no actual practical application to lean upon.

And that, Crylon knew, was an entirely different bear altogether.

His idea was simple. Get some materials to work with, on a smaller scale rather than a full sized use such as in building, and test his new theories and information out.

That meant buying some things to work with, in, and on.

His first stop was by a stand not far from the entrance. A, by Sunberth standards, somewhat respectable looking stand covered in pottery. Pots. Barrels to the side. Buckets of wood and iron. Various receptacles for holding things.

Recalling the mention of buckets from his reading, Crylon inspected one of the ones to the side. It seemed intact, though when the woman behind the stand saw him pick it up she stared at him. Likely, he thought to himself, because she thought he was about to run off with it.

Rather, he was interested in buying. Taking his waterskin from his pack, Crylon opened the top, and then splashed some water inside. Picking up the bucket Crylon waited a half moment, before liquid began dribbling out from the sides and bottom between ill sealed cracks.

"Watcha petchin doin, breaking my stuff!"

Crylon simply glared at the woman, and paused for a moment in silence before responding. Letting his absence of words hold more weight than a cursed reply.

“Is not break. Is test. Is broke, before try. If not, then would not leak. You try sell trash. You have any work? ”

The woman, tallish for a human with lanky brown hair, seemed to ponder the point of arguing for a moment. With a shrug she seemed to make up her mind. Heading to the side she picked up several buckets, before holding one up for Crylon to see. Then taking the waterskin from his hand, she splashed another bit of liquid inside.

Holding the bucket for several moments, no water came out. The woman then spun the bucket about, sloshing the bit of water inside, and while a few drops flew out of the top from her vigorous motions, nothing came out the sides or bottom.

"Two gallon bucket. Sell for 5 silver mizas."

Crylon nodded, taking the bucket and eying it for a moment, before handing over the money withdrawn from his pack.

Nodding towards the smaller clay vessels, Crylon continued.

“Also need smaller thing to hold. Cup maybe. Is have?”

The woman moved over to the bits of fired clay to the side. Pots. Vase. Cap. Cup. She moved to pick one up, before stopping to eye the Isur. Another moments consideration she then picked up a completely different cup.

When Crylon did not move to take it, the woman let out a sigh and yanked the bucket from his grip. Pouring the remainder of the water in it into the cup, the woman sloshed the leftover liquid around as she had with the cup.

The cup did not break. Or leak, so far as Crylon could tell. Satisfied Crylon nodded.

"Sella cup for another 3 copper mizas. Now get outta here, before you scare off any my less astute customers. Gotta do somepin withit leakin stuff eh?"

Crylon, half getting the womans gist, nodded and handed over the coins.

WC: 595

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on April 30th, 2019, 11:37 pm

With a sigh he set off, looking about the market. All that was left was to find some materials for making mortar, to try his new skill of laying stones in the style of masonry. Mortar, stones, laying, building. He could find some stones, not needing proper ones for use in building for this trial, but actual mortar... That he would need, and would need to buy. Though only a partial portion, not a full grouping.

It took him another bell, but finally Crylon found just such a place. Selling what appeared to be second or fifteenth hand building supplies, Crylon paused and the somewhat more permanent table. Behind it was a short and squat human woman, who looked to brook no nonsense. She still towered over Crylon by a good few inches.

Worn hammers. Blunt saws. Some rope. A pot full of iron nails which seemed to have been pulled out and straightened for reuse without being reheated and forged.

“Is have mortar? For mix, stick stones between, together?”

The woman paused in the midst of speaking, and then after pondering spoke in a deep but clear rasp.

"What kind?"

“Lime, sand, for mortar. Not much, maybe enough for... Half foot by foot?”

The woman nodded, messing about under the table for a bit, before pulling out a partly empty sack, followed by another. Both were thickly woven cloth of poor material, rough, but solid enough and keeping the material within within.

Crylon looked in one bag, to find sand of a sort, looking more like crushed up rock of some sort. But he supposed it did fit the bill, and while not sand in the sense of what one would find on the beach was sand compared to a rock.

The other held a white powdery mineral, which seemed to fit the descriptions he had seen.

"A gold miza, for both, and the bags they come in."

This woman, seeming to brook no argument, more seemed to state a fact. A price. It was a tactic Crylon would have to remember for the future in negotiations.

With a nod Crylon pulled out a single gold miza, and paid the woman before stowing the last of the materials in his pack.

His supplies gathered, Crylon headed back to the Gem and the lot next to it to do his practical work.

WC: 392

Purchases :

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on May 5th, 2019, 3:43 pm

Back at the lot by the Gem, Crylon went through his new supplies.

A cup for measuring out equal units to make sure he kept similar size. A bucket to do the mixing in. And the material to mix. He would try the 1 unit of lime to two unit of sand first, and see how things went.

He went inside and fetched a container, and filled it with the clean well water they had. Then back outside he went about the lot, finding some bits of large stone, rocks, from when the land had been cleared. Within a few chimes he found a small pile off to the side which had what he was looking for. Picking through the pile he found a few that were a bit flattish, though most were still rounded. But he was more focused on the action itself, not finding stone that would be exactly like the bricks to be used later.

Lastly he found a long stick which had been knocked or blown in. It was warped and had ben exposed to water, but it was strong enough and could add him in mixing.

Opening the bags he used his cup to measure out one cup of the lime and dump it into the bucket. Likewise he carefully measured out two cups of the graded sand particles and dumped them into the bucket.

Referring to his notes, they indicated he should use one quart of water to start with, for each bucket of sand. Of course, he was not working to that scale.

Doing some quick math, Crylon reasoned out the conversion for the scale he was working at. He was using a 6 ounce cup. There were 32 ounces in a quart. Four quarts in a gallon.

If he figured that was a gallon bucket... There were 128 ounces in a gallon. The rest though required him to write them out, as the numbers and factoring became to complex to do in his head. Using a blank sheet of his book, he began to write out the above factoring and then continued with the actual math rather than just the measurement conversions.

6 ounces to 1 gallon was a equivalent of 6 over 128, or... 3 over 64. Which was just over 1 twentieth of a gallon. One quart, to 3 over 64. One quart equaling 32 ounces. Meant... 1.5 ounces. Which was 1 fourth of a 6 ounce cup. He needed to add one fourth of the 6 ounce cup, for each 6 ounces of sand. Which he had two of... So he would start by half filling the cup.

Going back to the beginning, Crylon realized he had overcomplicated it. If one used 1 quart, per gallon, and there was 4 quarts in a gallon... Then it was a starting ratio of 1 to 4 water to sand. Much easier than working out all the conversions and doing the math.

Letting out a sigh at his own silliness and the extra unneeded effort he had done, Crylon began to use the stick to mix up the sand and lime in the bucket before adding the water.

WC: 526

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on May 5th, 2019, 6:31 pm

Once the sand and lime where thoroughly mixed, Crylon carfully added in the water. Half a cup added in, and then more mixing.

The liquid quickly soaked into the material, and the difficulty intensified. It was like mixing rocks as stone and lime mixed and clumped, forming small chunks and bigger wads which settled throughout. He had to use both arms in his mixing, struggling with the effort.

Eventually he felt he had done as much as he could, and was left with a large chunky mess. And so he added a bit more water, another quarter cup to the mix. Then he began mixing again, a laborious process.

As he further mixed in the added liquid, prior clumps broke apart, reformed, new ones came together, and the mix melded and fell apart in turn. But Crylon knew from his reading that adding too much water could make the mix weak and watery like soup, and so avoided adding too much water at once.

Instead he would mix as thoroughly as he could, before checking the consistency. Add in another sip. Mix some more. Mixing till he could not mix, and then checking the consistency by patting the top.

He was not sure exactly what he was looking for, but felt he would know when he saw it. Not too dry, but not too wet. A careful medium.

Once he felt he had it close enough for a first try Crylon used his left hand to take up a wad of the material, slapping it down on the rock he had set before him on the ground. He then, using his hand, spread and flattened it out.

Once it was good and spread out evenly with a thick layer, he set another stone atop it. The mortar below sucked at the stone, pulling on it, making the two momentarily stick together due to the gooey mix.

And then the stone slide off the one below.

Crylon pondered for a few moments, before deciding he had used too much mortar. Too thick of a layer. It could not fall just to the shape of the stones, since he had seen walls and things done with abnormally shaped rocks. Those had held together. But looking at it, he supposed even dried and shrunk as he thought it might, this had been too much material.

Hindsight and all that, he realized, made things much more clear. But then such was expected with such a trial and error effort.

Taking up two more stones which he placed to the side, Crylon grabbed up another lump of mortar though a smaller one this time. Spreading the material out he was careful to flatten the surface but not necessarily the mortar, giving the correct surface for the stone going above. It was, he reasoned, to act like a layer connecting the two, not a base or ground in truth.

Putting the stone down above it, Crylon removed the excess and smoothed it down. He would not know for certain how things had gone until it had dried, but in the meantime he could learn other things.

The mortar mix for now seems roughly even to what he wanted, though the more he worked with it the ever so slightly more comfortable with it he became.

And, Crylon reasoned, once he was dealing with nice flat pre made bricks and a flat surface, things would become that much easier.

WC: 572

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on May 5th, 2019, 6:55 pm

Grabbing up another stone, Crylon considered the material he was working with. It was not even, but then neither was the mortar.

Using the mortar on one side, Crylon purposely flattened the surface, patting the material down and packing it in several times till he felt he had the right level. Then he flipped the rock over to put the mortar on the bottom side, letting it mix and pack into the dirt of the ground below.

If he did not have a a flat stone to act as the base, he could try making one via the mortar. Perhaps it would work. Perhaps it was not. But then he was experimenting, and so was learning things. Trial and error. It would work, or it would not, but he would learn either way.

How to work with mortar. How to stack in the style of masonry. How to do this and that, and which worked or did not. Learning as many of such things today seemed his main goal, not making anything.

Packing more on top of the stone he had flipped, Crylon began packing and flattening it. Once he felt it was properly done he would add another stone atop it, cleaning off the edges and the excess mortar from his work.

He kept this going, working his way through the small pile of odd stones near the edge of the lot, trying different method of sticking them together until he had worked through most of his mortar.

Next he tried some smaller stones, lining them up and mortaring in between them. Then he added more on top, flattening that as well, before putting stones atop them in a small makeshift simulacrum of a wall.

By the time he was nearing the bottom of the container he had mixed in, he was left with a chunk of residue and material that had not properly mixed like the bits above. Something else to consider in mixing, if the entire thing would not mix easily. He added in a bit more lime and sand, and a bit more water, and tried to remix the remnants into a bit more mortar.

But this time he was left with little more than a watery mix, having clearly added too much water for how much material was left.

Cleaning out the bucket, scraping the sides clean to make sure his mortar did not dry and set within, Crylon eyed the bits he had worked on.

When he came back to see their progress in drying in the morning, most had set.

His first with two much mix had cracked and fallen apart without anything to hold against and without being properly done.

His next seemed to have worked, being able to support the weight of the stone below when he held it by the stone on top.

The one he had added a mortar bottom two had not bonded too the ground properly, bits coming off without pressure on them, but the mortar atop had fitted to the stone above. As had the sides and tops of of mortar on the small wall. Most of his attempts had worked, and thinking back to what had worked and what had not Crylon felt he had a better grasp of what to do and what not to do.

WC: 552