Place a tarpaulin on the work surface to protect it and stand the block of sandstone on that. Mark out the shape of the figure you’re carving on the sandstone, using wax crayon. Mark out the rough shape on all four sides of the block to offer a good guide for the initial cutting.
Put on the dust mask, heavy gloves and safety goggles before starting to work, so you won’t breathe in the sandstone, end up with any in your eye or accidentally cut yourself with the chisels.
Hold the fine-tip chisel so it’s at a 45 degree angle to the sandstone. Hold the tip against the sandstone at one of the top corners and hit the end of the handle with the mallet to begin removing the sandstone. Continue until you have the general outline of the figure.
Pick up the tooth chisel and use this to remove all the craving lines and bumps from using the fine-tip chisel. Work slowly over the surface until you’ve smoothed out the sandstone in the shape of the figure.
Select a flat chisel to begin adding detail to the sandstone carving; a fine-tip chisel is best in a small area while the wide tip works best when you’re working over wider surfaces.
Exchange the flat chisels for a riffler, which is a small chisel with a thin point, and is intended to give detail in small areas. Complete the details with this, working slowly to ensure you don’t take off more of the sandstone than you’ve intended. Continue until you’re satisfied with the carving of the figure.
Sand the figure with silicon carbide sandpaper. Start by working over lightly with a coarse paper – about 120-grit – then progress through finer grits until you finish with a 1000-grit sandpaper that will give a polish to the carved figure.