Real good dry-stack stone wall instructional video

This is one of the better videos I've come across going real in depth on how to build a mortar-less stone wall.



There's a lot of info but it is a little dry. Couldn't help myself there, that pun just screamed to be used!

Yes. Very good information and professionally filmed.

They are working with great material. My potato shaped glacial rock, does not stack so easily, or give such a uniform finish.

Michael Newby : A great find, thanks for sharing ! Big AL

It's an excellent video that leaves me feeling like "I could do that" until on just how many person-hours it would take to build any significant structure and how many other undone projects I have on my list.

But I do have this one little "badlands" area between the bounding road at the edge of our property and our stock pond; there's a deeply eroded ravine full of rocks stretching from the road culvert to the pond. It could be tamed into a little wetland oasis of small pools and terraces, all designed to catch sediment and support floodable vegetation like willows and the few cattails that are already established among the rocks...

Dale Hodgins wrote:
They are working with great material. My potato shaped glacial rock, does not stack so easily, or give such a uniform finish.

I would like to see a video of similar work done with round rocks, if it's even possible. I can see how you could smash and fracture and trim and do a lot more packing to use river rock for the bulk of a dry stone wall, but I don't see how you would replace the tie rocks or the foundation course or the end caps or a few other structural parts that really seem to demand rock that's rectangular in at least two of its three dimensions.

Here's another good video about stacking dry stone:

I helped build a stone basement for a house.  We used this method, although we used mortar as well.  Each stone was placed so that it could stand alone just as is done in this method, and then removed, mortar added, and then the stone was re-placed.  We did two lines of stone and a rubble infill, but everything had concrete as well, unlike this dry stone finished product.   The project I was on was an enormous task.  It took two full summers to build the basement, an oval 60 feet long, twenty feet wide, and three feet thick!  The following summer after the basement we did a two story cordwood house on top, and then added a barn shaped roof.  Colossal, but super fun.  I'm glad I was paid well in food and cash for the work.  :)  

I just came across this fella Devin Devines work,  it is pretty incredible

Dry Stone Spheres

What a work of art that stone ball is! The dry stack moon gate that was recently completed at Wheaton Labs Permaculture Technology Jamboree this summer is a treat for the eys as well.

I must have missed it, but what is the purpose of the coping?
Why not just lay more flat stones as a cap?

Also, would your buttress be modified for a retaining wall?
Instead of an "A"shape, maybe a "/!" Shape instead?

the purpose of the coping stones is to add weight to the top and also to help shed rain to the sides
when they are all leaning on each other they lock together well

I want to build with stone and lately I have been on a kick of watching videos in the evening

some I have been watching lately are

dry stone tv:








Eugenio Monesma:




Brian Post:




Vermont heritage granite company:




this video is interesting as well:




look through each channel and there are more good videos

there are more I want to post but would have to do some searching... when I find more  good ones I will post here