Sandblasting or Laser Etching

When it comes to adding images to memorials, a consideration that needs to be taken is whether to have them done by sandblasting or laser etching. There are pros and cons of each technique, usually dependent on the type of image you need and the material the headstone is  made from.

Sandblasting is a more modern process used for lettering granite memorials and can be used for adding images to memorials that require being coloured or gilded. A stencil is cut on a rubber tape this can be hand drawn and cut out by hand or used on a computer with a machine similar to a printer using a sharp blade to cut out the desired design. The rubber tape is then lined up and affixed to the memorial. The areas that have been cut are then removed, using compressed air and sandblast grit. With a lot of skill the design is then sandblasted onto the memorial. For lettering and for a coloured design the sandblasting must all be taken to the same depth to give a quality finish.

Sandblasting or Laser Etching

It is possible to do a shaded sandblast design. The initial process is similar but the attention to detail during the sandblasting process is very skilled as it is done in layers. This means only a highly skilled craftsmen can offer this service. Sandblasting is best carried out in workshop conditions in a concealed unit and using dust apparatus in a dry environment. The process can be done in the cemetery for additional lettering or for adding designs but only on a dry day and the area must be enclosed so no harm can be caused to surrounding memorials or to passers by.

Some masons will sandblast marble, slate and stone but at Sarsfield we we do not, as it is not the traditional method for adding designs or lettering to these materials. Traditionally these materials are hand cut and hand carved, so at Sarsfields we do like to try and keep to traditional practices as and when we can.

Sandblasting or laser etching

Laser etching is a process for adding designs to granite memorials. This involves a specialist machine which through a computer and a very fine diamond point can remove the polished surface and the process will place a design on the stone. The design cannot be gilded, but it can be highlighted so the design is more visible. Alternatively a highly skilled artistic mason can colour it so that if you run your finger across the design it has no depth to it and, you can barely feel it. This process must be carried out in a clean workshop environment as any dust can effect the process and damage the design or the diamond point.

We at Sarsfields can offer advice regarding ornamentation as to which process is most suitable for your particular choice of memorial. We are able to produce a wide range of bespoke sandblasted and laser etched designs to help personalise your memorial. Please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your requirements and provide you with a free no obligation quote.

All Saints Church Childwall Graves

All Saints Church Childwall in Liverpool has one of the city’s oldest churchyards and contains the graves of some prominent people. They include some of the most notable Liverpool businessmen of the Victorian era, a famous Everton footballer, poet and the city’s first bishop.

All Saints Church Childwall

Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery is one of the most important art collections outside of London. It opened in the 1870s and the benefactor was Andrew Barclay Walker, who was involved in his father’s business Walkers of Warrington. Walker was twice Mayor of Liverpool that decade and knighted for his public works. He lived at Gateacre Grange and was buried at All Saints when he died in 1893.

Another businessman who died in the 1890s and is buried in All Saints Childwall is Sir Arthur Bower Forwood. He was a shipowner trading with the Americas and India, as well as Conservative MP for Ormskirk. A keen advocate of old age pensions, universal suffrage and council housing, he lived at The Priory in Gateacre. A statue of him stands in St John’s Gardens in Liverpool city centre.

The only player to play for one of the two big Merseyside football clubs and represent England at both football and cricket was Jack Sharp. He signed for Everton from Aston Villa in 1899 and played over 300 times for them in the next eleven years, scoring 68 league goals. After finishing playing he opened a sports shop in Whitechapel in Liverpool, which supplied playing strips and match balls to Everton and Liverpool. He died of heart failure in 1938 aged just 59 and when his funeral took place at All Saints, Childwall, football clubs sent wreaths in their own colours.

All Saints Church Childwall

Sir William Watson was a poet who caused controversy in Liverpool in 1924 when he was invited to write a poem to raise funds for the new cathedral. The diocese did not expect what he eventually came up with, a piece criticising the fact that there were children on the city’s streets that were hardly fed and clothed, yet wealth was being spent on God. Watson was born in Yorkshire in 1858 and had a nomadic childhood, his parents eventually settling in Aigburth. He was knighted in 1917 after his writings in support of the war effort and prime minister Lloyd George. However he had twice been overlooked for poet laureate due to his political leanings. When he died in 1935 he was living in Sussex, but was buried in his parents’ grave in All Saints.

All Saints Church Childwall

Watson’s views on Liverpool Cathedral would not have pleased Bishop John C. Ryle had he still been alive. Ryle was the first bishop of Liverpool and appointed in 1880. He told the prime minister, Lord Beaconsfield, that he was too old at 64 but received the response that he had a good constitution. Ryle was known for his ability to engage with all classes in simple terms and an advocate of church reform. He died  from a stroke in June 1900, three months after he had retired. He worked out of St Peter’s pro-cathedral in Church Street until he retired in March 1900. Three months later he died of a stroke at the age of 84.

All Saints Church Childwall is situated at the junction of Childwall Abbey Road and Score Lane, Liverpool, L16 0JW.