Whoops! Jim, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS wear work gloves and eye protection when carving stone! If you're sandblasting or using a power grinder of any sort, add a dust mask and hearing protection too.

Stone chips in the eye or hand, loss of hearing, and silicosis aren't things to fool around with.

Block your work in place well, too. Your blanker (stone cutting work table) can be anything from a custom made bench to an old 55 gal. drum, but a heavy stone rolling off onto your feet hurts like...well, just like you think it would.