00:00 Hi, my name's James. I'm a stone dresser and I have a freelance stone dressing business called Stone Dressing Services
00:06 where I provide a freelance stone dressing service to stone merchants, construction firms and also your small runnel, the mill, general builders.
00:16 I started off in the trade straight from school at the age of 15.
00:20 I was always classed as not academic, so I went straight into the trades.
00:26 I started at 16 on the tools, learning the skills, learning the craft, perfected that up until the age of 25.
00:33 Moved into management at the same company and then at the age of 32, after COVID, decided I wanted to go back on the tools full time.
00:42 So I left and set up my business in July 2021 and I've not looked back since.
00:50 Everything I do is by hand. There's my hammer and my chisel, which is locally produced in Brighouse.
00:56 And they're different than your normal chisels because they're actually hand forged, not drop forged.
01:03 So the toolmaker I use is from Brighouse, another Yorkshire local business.
01:09 I go see him every two weeks to get my tools sharpened because with them being such bespoke and unique tools,
01:16 because they've all got tungsten carbide inserts, which is what you need for when you work in sandstone.
01:22 So I go see him every two weeks to get them sharpened.
01:26 Unfortunately, there's no apprenticeship for stone dressing.
01:30 So I learned from an old timer, as we used to call them, who hailed from the quarries of Bradford,
01:35 because a lot of the stone dressers back in the day came out of Bradford.
01:39 So I learned off him.
01:41 So basically, I was put with him to learn the craft of stone dressing because there's a lot of different aspects to it.
01:49 But also there's different types of stone and each one of them is of a different value.
01:54 So if you are not processing that pile properly, the stone merchant is not getting the value that they've paid out of that stone,
02:00 which is another reason why working it by hand is a lot better than working it with a machine.
02:08 I work all over Yorkshire and Manchester as well.
02:13 I have three main locations. One is in Shore in Greater Manchester.
02:16 One is in Wetherby, where we are here today, and another one is at a quarry in Huddersfield.
02:21 I wouldn't like to class myself as an influencer.
02:24 I would more like to class myself as a creator because I create content which is appealing for people to watch.
02:30 When I work with brands, they like to use the term influencer because people see people wearing gloves, glasses, representing brands,
02:41 and they're influencing people's decision to buy the product, which is where the term influencer came from.
02:47 I myself, I'm a creator and I showcase brands products through my trade, through my craft.
02:54 It has taken off for me and it's completely changed my life really.
02:58 I've met some amazing people who I'd have never met.
03:02 I've been able to work with some brands who are absolutely fantastic, such as CT1, Scan,
03:10 and the people I've met along the way, they're just, just being around quality people and you go in a direction,
03:18 you've got these people to bounce off. It's amazing.
03:22 And like I say, it's completely changed my life. It really has.
03:26 People can find me on Instagram under the handle @theyorchestonedresser, on Facebook under the same,
03:32 and also on TikTok and my YouTube channel.
03:35 It's a day-to-day part of my craft and in it, with stone dressing being so rare and so niche,
03:41 I've tried to put up short educational videos just so if you're an average person working some stone in your garden,
03:49 you might be able to pick up off these tips, you know, because there's nowhere really to find them because my trade's so niche.
03:56 And I actually had a message off a lass who is studying at, I believe it's Northampton College,
04:04 and they were actually showing one of my videos in the class, in a mason's class,
04:09 which I found really, really interesting and hopefully as things progress,
04:13 I would like to give back through social media in educational purposes,
04:20 whether that's going into schools and talking to kids and saying, "Look, there's other options outside of being academic, so to speak."
04:30 The trades, they're dying out for people. They are dying out for people to get into the trades.
04:35 And I've got two daughters, and if they picked up the tools and learned to become a stone mason,
04:39 a dry stone waller, a carver, I would absolutely support that 100%.
04:45 I'd probably say the craft of stone dressing, being realistic, there's under 400 people that do it in the UK.
04:54 I'd even probably go to say less than 300 people.
04:58 It's not taught anymore, but if you look at it from the perspective of the stone merchants where you learn the trades,
05:07 because stone is bought on a price per tonne and is sold out on a price per metre.
05:12 So to bring a young lad in, and it might take him two weeks to work that pile of stone like the one behind me,
05:20 there'd be no value left in that stone by the time he'd gone through it,
05:24 because it'd just be worthless then. They wouldn't make any money.
05:29 So there's going to have to be a change in the next 20 years, or my trade is unfortunately going to die.
05:35 [Stone hitting the floor]
05:37 [Stone hitting the floor]
05:39 [Stone hitting the floor]
05:41 [Sound of the bottle being filled with water]
05:53 [Sound of a water bottle being filled with water]
05:55 [Sound of a water bottle being filled with water]
06:03 [Sound of a water bottle being filled with water]
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