ashlar

ash·lar

A0459400 (ăsh′lər)n.1. a. A squared block of building stone.b. Masonry of such stones.2. A thin, dressed rectangle of stone for facing walls.

[Middle English assheler, from Old French aisselier, board, from aissele, from Medieval Latin axicellus, from Latin assis.]

ashlar

(ˈæʃlə) or

ashler

n1. (Building) a block of hewn stone with straight edges for use in building2. (Building) Also called: ashlar veneer a thin dressed stone with straight edges, used to face a wall3. (Building) masonry made of ashlar[C14: from Old French aisselier crossbeam, from ais board, from Latin axis axletree; see axis¹]

ash•lar

or ash•ler

(ˈæʃ lər)

n. 1. a squared building stone cut more or less true on all faces adjacent to those of other stones so as to permit very thin mortar joints. 2. masonry made of such stones. [1325–75; Middle English ascheler < Anglo-French, Old French aiseler supporting timber]

Thesaurus

Noun

ashlar - a rectangular block of hewn stone used for building purposesbuilding block - a block of material used in construction workstone - building material consisting of a piece of rock hewn in a definite shape for a special purpose; "he wanted a special stone to mark the site"

Translations

sillarconcio

Ashlar

ashlar

[′ash·lər] (civil engineering) Masonry with an exposed side of square or rectangular stones.

Ashlar

a term applied to items made of natural stone, especially in the form of rectangular blocks, used in their natural form in construction and measured during quarrying by the piece or in cubic meters.

Most ashlar is produced for use in walling; it is made from porous rocks, such as limestones, volcanic tuffs, and coquina, which have good heat-insulation properties and which are relatively light and suitable for processing by cutting, hewing, and hammering. It is quarried by opencut or, less often, underground mining methods with stonecutting and coal-cutting machines and cable saws.

Three types of ashlar are produced for walling. Machine-cut wall ashlar with a sawed surface finish is produced in the USSR with the following standard dimensions: 19 × 19 × 39 cm and 19 × 24 × 49 cm (for limestone products), and 29 × 19 × 39 cm (for tuff products). The weight of the blocks does not exceed 40 kg, and the density ranges from 1,200 to 2,200 kg/m³; the ultimate compressive strength ranges from 0.4 to 40 megapascals per m² (4–400 kg-force per cm²). Rough-hewn wall ashlar is quarried from tuffs by coal-cutting machines; it is hewn on the face side on milling machines or by hand to dimensions of 30 × 20 × (30–55) cm. Large-block wall ashlar is produced in various sizes, up to blocks as high as the height of a building floor. The face side of porous ashlar has a sawed, hewn, or, rarely, polished texture. More than 10 million cu m of limestone ashlar and 2 million cu m of tuff ashlar are produced annually in the USSR.

Blocks of dense rock, such as granites, basalts, and marbles, are produced for subsequent finishing into facing sheets (made from decorative stone) and stone for walling (for socles and retaining walls). They are quarried only by opencut methods with explosives. Further working is accomplished manually or with pneumatic or steam-jet tools (for granite) or milling machines (for basalt). The dimensions of granite ashlar blocks are (45 or 60) × 17 × (50 or more) cm, and those of basalt blocks are 30 × 20 × (30–60) cm. The face side of dense ashlar has a steam-jet, point, grooved, riffled, hewn, or polished texture.

In the USSR ashlar is produced in the Ukraine (limestone and granite), Azerbaijan and Moldavia (limestone), Armenia (tuff and basalt), the Kabardinian-Balkar ASSR (tuff), and Georgia (teschenite). Ashlar is also produced in France, Italy, Great Britain, the USA, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.

REFERENCES

Proizvodstvo prirodnykh kamennykh stenovykh materialov i legkikh zapolnitelei. Moscow, 1962.
Atsagortsian, Z. A. Prirodnye kamennye materialy Armenii. Moscow, 1967.
Grigorovich, M. B., and M. G. Nemirovskaia. Mineral’noe syr’e dlia promyshlennosti stroitel’nykh materialov i ego otsenka pri geologorazvedochnykh rabotakh. Moscow, 1974.

Z. A. ATSAGORTSIAN

ashlar

1. Squared building stone. 2. Ashlar masonry. 3. A vertical stud between the floor beams and rafters of a garret.

ashlar

ash·lar

ashlar

ashler

ash•lar

or ash•ler

Ashlar

ashlar

Ashlar

REFERENCES

ashlar

ashlar

Words related to ashlar

noun a rectangular block of hewn stone used for building purposes

Related Words