Stone sculpting supplies for arts and crafts, school and leisure

Whoever works with stone needs, apart from tools for shaping and modelling, also suitable materials for surface treatment, grinding and polishing, by hand or with the machine. At bildhau you will find a well thought-out range of stone sculpting supplies and stonemasonry supplies. 

Sculpture stones: Alabaster, Marble, Soapstone & Co

Many types of stone are suitable for sculpture. Stone is a natural material, created over thousands of years and quarried all over the world. Sculptor's stones come in a wide variety of hardnesses and colours and with a wide variety of structures and properties. Soapstone , Alabaster , marble and sandstone and limestone are among the classics. However, it is also worth taking a look at other types of stone, such as serpentine , travertine or Onyx , which in their diversity can provide the best inspiration for design work. Those who love a special challenge will reach for a hard stone such as granite.

The right tool for every stone

Each stone has its own characteristics and, depending on its hardness and texture, appropriate tools are required, regardless of whether you work by hand or with power tools.

Sculpting by hand

Soft to medium-hard stones such as alabaster, marble and limestone are ideally suited for working with chisels and Mason's hammers . The chisels for the softer stones are forged by hand from steel in the old tradition and only in a few workshops in Germany and Italy, among others. For harder types of stone, carbide chisels are used. Soapstone is usually very soft and can be worked quickly. You don't need a chisel or a mallet, you can simply use rasps , saws , notchers, a soapstone knife and sandpaper get started.

bildhau carefully selects all hand tools and is in close contact with the manufacturers in Germany and Italy. In addition to tools from BAVARIA, MILANI and GIORGI, bildhau sells a series of tools for stone sculpture developed in-house under the name KAPRA.

Since wrought-steel chisels need to be well cared for and regularly sharpened, sculpture naturally requires the appropriate abrasives and bench stones for sharpening the tools can be found.

Machining: Power Tools & Pneumatic Tools

In addition to power tools such as angle grinders and milling machines , compressor-driven compressed-air tools , but also special chainsaws for use. Among other things, for splitting stones and for plinthing you will need drills .

The finishing touch: grinding, polishing & surface treatment

In stone sculpture, surface finishing plays an important role and there are the most diverse possibilities for shaping the surfaces of a work – the variations range from naturally broken or roughly hewn to highly polished. Many stones that look quite inconspicuous when unworked only reveal their true character and beauty when their surface is finely cut or polished. Whether by hand or with a machine: from rasps and files to sanding sponges, sanding pads and a wide range of sanding papers to the colour intensifier many different tools and materials for surface treatment can be found at bildhau – and of course lots of special tools to reach even the smallest nooks and crannies.

If the stone does break: stone glue

If you have worked with stone frequently, you know that it can happen: The workpiece breaks at a particularly fragile point or at a crack that you initially overlooked despite all your care. On the one hand, it is of course an artistic challenge to deal with such situations and to react to them in sculptural work. Sometimes, however, only one thing helps: it has to be glued. Depending on the area of application, bildhau offers various stone glues e.g. from Akemi.

Stonemasonry and sculpture supplies from the professional

bildhau has many years of experience in the distribution of stone sculpting supplies. Comprehensive advice on choosing the right stone and the right tool is a special concern for bildhau – regardless of whether you have been working professionally as a stone sculptor or stonemason for many years or whether you want to devote your free time to working with stone for the very first time. The bildhau team comes from practical experience and knows all about stone sculpting.