This is an example of what many old cemetery headstones look like after 100 or more years of weathering.?ÿ No connection to me.
This is what the same headstone can look like after a careful cleaning job with the proper liquids and gentle brushing.
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The headstone of my great-great grandfather had settled and fell over.?ÿ I had a skilled fellow create a new base which also went around my great-great grandmother's grave and set them in firmly so they would be upright for many years to come.?ÿ He cleaned both for no extra charge.?ÿ He even made a hole in the base for the GAR monument.?ÿ All for less than $150.
One camp holds to the idea of the weathered stone appearance as being proper.
Another camp prefers the rare cleaning so that future generations can read the inscriptions.
What do you think?
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This link shows more examples of the cleaning and restoration.
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A lot of the old stones 1700 to 1900 were soft stone for carving which the acid rain hit hard here in the NE.
The clean stone will last longer.?ÿ So if you are going to have a stone at all, it is appropriate to keep it clean.
I've recorded enough docs taking up room for the foreseeable future. Pour me over the falls at Goat Creek with Dad...
Cleaning is good if and only if done carefully by someone who knows what they are doing.
From what I recall seeing, granite did not become the default until after the civil war, and the earlier ones were soft enough that even clean they can be hard to read now.
Clean and legible is a sign there's still someone here that cares.
Not to hijack the thread.?ÿ
I get a real red A$$ when I see an American flag that is in tatters. I know there are times when a flag with history or some event significance is displayed with shrapnel or bullet holes. Time and place.
The wind damaged example in one of the pics does not fit into that category, in my humble opinion.
JA, PLS, SoCal
