The Stonesmith began as the cemetery lettering arm of a larger headstone company that's been in our family for more than thirty five years. For three and a half decades, we did the full work; designing new monuments, sourcing the granite, carving the inscriptions, installing the stones in cemeteries from the Cape to the North Country.
The whole time, the most common job that came in wasn't a new monument. It was a phone call from a recent widow or widower, or the adult child of one, asking the same question: "My mother passed. Her name needs to go on Dad's stone. Can you tell me what it costs and when you can do it?"
For thirty five years, the industry standard answer to that question has been: "We'll need to take a rubbing first, and we'll get back to you with a price in a few days." That answer is defensible; font matching is real work, and every cemetery has its own paperwork. But it leaves the family on the phone, in grief, with no number.
The Stonesmith is our answer to that. A separate brand, a single craft, a published price, and a written timeline. Same family. Same workshop. Same craft we've been practicing for thirty five years. Different paperwork.
What we believe
About the work.
Cemetery lettering is a craft. It's been a craft since the Romans started cutting Capitalis Quadrata into marble two thousand years ago. The font, the depth, the finish, the layout; all of it matters, and all of it should be matched to what's already on the stone. The new letters should look like they've always been there. That's the test.
About price.
A grieving family should not be asked to call four shops to triangulate a price. Lettering is $300 plus $15 per letter, and cleaning is $450 flat per stone. Restoration needs an individual assessment, so we review your photos and provide a custom quote before work begins.
About time.
When someone passes, every week of waiting for the stone to be finished is a week the family doesn't have a complete place to visit. Six weeks is a commitment we can hold. We hold it. If we miss it, we refund.
About what we won't do.
We won't quote a job over the phone without seeing a photo. We won't take a job in a cemetery we can't legally enter. We won't restore a stone that needs a conservator instead of a letterer. We won't tell you the work is finished if it isn't. We won't tack on fees we didn't disclose. We won't sell you a stone you don't need.