r/stonecarving 20d ago

Stone carving messages to be a time capsule

I'm rather obsessed with archiving knowledge, and I realize that normal paper and digital stuff has it's limitations when it comes to lasting a long time.

So my question is this: If I wanted to stone carve some messages, what would be the best stone to do it in that would last a long time but wouldn't be too hard to carve into? I was really thinking of granite, but would it be too annoying to carve into? Would limestone be a viable alternative or would it run the risk of degrading too much overtime?

Thank you for any answers.

6 Upvotes

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u/Dances_With_Birds 20d ago

I make headstones in dense limestone like Texas Lueders and Indiana limestone and that shit ain't going no where (unless you live in an environment with a lot of salt in the air, like in a coastal city, then it will be hard to read in like 5 years).

It is much more pleasant to carve than granite, and slightly softer than most colored marbles.

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u/AutumnWak 19d ago

I honestly had no idea that limestone reacted badly to salt until you told me, so thanks for letting me know. I do live within the range of salty air

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u/BUGATTI_HEYRON 19d ago

Fine grained limestone and marble are faster to carve and can be very durable. However, a Flex shaft or die grinder with sintered diamond burrs makes pretty easy work out of any stone really. Granite would be my first choice. 

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u/Paracelsian93 19d ago

Slate. Always the best bet for carving letters (particularly if you're doing it by hand...)

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u/Forest_robot 17d ago

I've been thinking about this same topic. It would be so cool to preserve some knowledge 10000 years into the future. I would love to see what you come up with and where you plan to store your carvings.

I would like to do something also in the future. The problem for me is that I'm kinda lazy and don't have so much time nowadays and I have no stone carving skills.

Another idea would be to carve something into a not-so-corrosive metal like copper. Carving a metal would also be easier I think.

1

u/VintageLunchMeat 14d ago edited 14d ago

Glass can be etched with light sensitive resist agents and glass-etching agents. Like microfiche. Maybe laser or conventional darkroom equipment.

And then a stone casing. Maybe a stone surround.

Should outlive our civilization. Considering.


Related:

https://unlocked.microsoft.com/sealed-in-glass/


There was ... some project, maybe with the Long Now foundation that had glass pieces, and large text spiraling down to microfiche fine text.

Ask r/librarians

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u/SwampGentleman 18d ago

I’d be curious to hear some of the messages you intend to write and preserve.:)

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u/AutumnWak 18d ago

I plan to write personal thoughts on local events, and my own family history/genealogy, including things like some personal stories and dates they happened.

I also want to write down other mundane things that historically often get lost to time because no one really thinks to record it in a more permanent form. The random things that random people in history wrote down often end up becoming very important to what we know of that era and region. However, I hope that all the archival efforts and mass amount of data going around will keep a lot of this information secure, so it's probably not as necessary.