Lettering

Cutting letters into stone, one V-cut at a time, the way masons always did.

Lettercutting is the slowest, quietest part of the craft, and the most unforgiving. A letter cut is a V — two angled cuts meeting at the bottom — and every mistake is permanent, because stone has no undo.

The V-cut

sketch    chalk the letters, full size
cut       two faces, 40–60°, meet at the centre line
depth     shallow for shadow, deep for drama
clean     a sharp point to tidy the serifs

The reward

A well-cut letter catches the light and changes all day as the sun moves. Roman capitals, cut deep, will still be legible in a thousand years. That's the whole point of the craft.