Yorkshire Stone Dresser James Robinson
Yorkshire Stone Dresser: How craftsman James Robinson became a social media sensation as he shares the secrets of his trade. The father from Leeds has found there is incredible interest worldwide as he opens up on tips and tricks on how to cut stone.
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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]