The word quarrying is used to refer to the art of carving in construction stone. The people dedicated to this work are known as: stonemasons, carvers, laborers, cabuqueros or carvers. At present, it is used only for the restoration of constructions of great architectural and patrimonial importance, the covering of facades, and the manufacture of wall decorations, causing its gradual disappearance. In this trade, the raw material used is stone, with a variation in its procedure and in the utensils used, depending on its strength, fragility, geological structure, and also if it is coarse or fine grain.
The working procedure consists first in extracting the stones from the quarries, then the dismantling of the blocks, their flattening and the carving of the ornaments continues. The four phases of the quarrying process are detailed below: 1) Extraction of the material, this is done by the cabuquero, following the strand, using wedges, bar and landfall pick. 2) Fragmentation of the stone block, this is done by the carver with wedges, mandarins and square. 3) Organization of the appropriate forms, this is done by the stonemason, who is also in charge of the design of the sketches in life size or to scale. 4) Final finish, work done by the carver, which includes ornamental applications.
On the other hand, in order to carry out this work, various tools and utensils are needed, among which are: percussion tools (hammers, wedges, picks, etc.), measuring tools (squares, meters, compasses), cutting (cutting machines, and saws), finishing tools (brushes, punches, chisels).
Another piece of information to show is how traditional artisans placed marks or signs on their work, these marks were called stonemason marks, which only they could recognize and which were also engraved on the utensils they used in their work, these signs were very simple, they were composed of stripes, crosses or the initial of the name. This was done in order to serve as a reference for the knowledge of the productivity of each craftsman, this methodology was widely used in medieval constructions.
