The following article is presented with the compliments of the HOLDEN RESEARCH CIRCLE. The article may be freely used for masonic purposes only. For all other purposes the approval of the Circle President, W Bro Graeme Love must be obtained.

STONE MASONS TERMINOLOGY

Cowan	One who is a stonemason working without mortar courses.
Stone	A walling material, either cut natural rock such as Sandstone, Limestone, and Granite, or cast stone. For our exercise we will leave cast stone aside as it doesn't apply.
Stone Mason	A worker in WALLING MATERIAL.
Free Stone	Building stone which is fine-grained and uniform enough to be worked in any direction, and can thus be CARVED. Freestones are generally lime stones or fine-grained sandstones. (Some authors use the term "having no grain", which Geologically laughable)
Freemason	A term in the Middle Ages which meant a skilled mason, capable of CARVING Freestone. The term is no longer used in the building industry but refers to members of certain associations. This Freestone mason (since reduced to Freemason). The Freestone was a term applied to stone suitable in texture for the jambs, piers, arches, traceries, and other constructional parts of a building, the planning of which required a thorough knowledge of Geometry, and the details of the work had to be set out by a master on a tracing board before the templates and molds could be made for the use of the Craftsmen. While the term has been dropped by the working masons, the inscription "stone and marble mason" may still be seen. As a Geologist I have worked for both a MATERIAL'S ARCHITECT, and a BUILDING ARCHITECT. The Material's architect is the Junior worker.
Mason	A stone SETTER (worker); a BRICKLAYER (Scotland & USA); a FIXER or WALLING (England). Therefore, a ROUGH stone mason is a Stone worker, setter, fixer or waller.
Mason's Labourer	In the mason's YARD: A skilled labourer who helps in lifting stones and cutting lewis holes. On the SITE: He helps the mason FIXER by supplying him with mortar, grout and other materials, and cleans down the stonework.
Mason's Mitre	An apparent ANGLE JOINT formed by shaping the corner out of the solid stone. This is the true GIBLUM, if there was such a word.
GIBLUM	Not a word - ref: The Oxford Dictionary. Coil: usually translated as "stone-squarer", though masons would be as correct. Meant to refer to workers from Gebal. It is found in I Kings 5:18. King James Bible - "...and the stone-squarers..". Bernard Jones in his Compendium, shows great ignorance, when he states, when referring to the three assassins, "..if they have any true derivation of a masonic nature, then it is more likely to be by some roundabout road from the word "ghiblim" or "giblim" (stone-cutter or mason). Brown's Bible of 1880 - Giblites from Gebal were ships carpenters and stone-masons.

Brethren all,
The Circle President welcomes any corrections, suggestions, etc.

GO TO ARTICLES:

M W Bro A.T. Holden, PGM
The history and formation of the Holden Research Circle
Decidation of HRC No 2
Freemasonry - the mighty paradox
The genuine Secrets of a Master Mason
Freemasonry in ancient China
Freemasonry in Thailand
Pillar Clubs
The "9 Worthies" or "Excellent Masters"
Stone Masons Terminology
A simple lodge meeting
Count Leo Tolstoy and Freemasonry
De-Christianisation of English Freemasonry
Freemasonry which is of the now, not just the future
 

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