After the granite keystones and brick keys were mortared in I let the work set up for a couple days. This allows the mortar to reach an exceptable degree of hardness because I didn’t want to risk pulling the arch apart if it got stuck. My Dad was with me a so he gave me a hand sliding the form out after all the wedges were pulled. The form got jammed up a little bit because some of the mortar squeezed out of the front of the brick and stuck to the form. The solution to this was removing the face boards of the form so the sides could flex inward to allow it to slide out. Here is what it looked like after the form came out.
This side had some bed mortar that came through the brick and contacted the form.
Before the pointing could be done, all the bed mortar had to be chipped out. For this I used one of my Pneumatic Carving tools…the same ones I use for carving stone. The chisel used is an Swept Cape chisel and is designed for mortar removal in preparation for pointing.
Same section after cleaning….
I used compressed air to clean out all the debris and dust then pointed all the joints. The pointing mix was just a 3:1 Sand/ Type N mortar.
Now I can start on the dry stone surround…if I can find the time!
Anna says
It’s beautiful. *sigh* pizza….drool….
Matt Sevigny says
I hope to start posting pizza pics in a couple months!
Clark says
Damn Matt!!! This is going to be the coolest pizza oven I’ve ever seen. That’s European church stuff you got going on there, not South Carolina pizza oven. Seriously awesome!!!
Matt Sevigny says
Yikes Clark no pressure ;)!! Yeah you probably have seen this type of arch in cathedrals…and with good reason. It was a great improvement over the Roman arch as far as directing the thrust of the weight above and that lended to wide, expansive ceilings.
MzunguEriki says
looks good. I like the granite keystones.
Do you trust it? True test is for the mason to stand on it.
Matt Sevigny says
Thanks Erik. Well, see if this satisfies you….right after I pulled the form I climbed up the side and sat on it. The arch had only been mortared together for two days at that point and I weigh around 215 with work cloths on. I’m thinking if there was going to be an immediate failure it probably would have hapened!…..I hope.