DSWAGB Certification

In 2009 at a dry stone festival that was held in Grand Valley Ontario by the Dry Stone Walling Association of Canada, I tested for my level 2 (intermediate) certification through the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain. I had to strip out and rebuild a section of free standing wall with a proper 'wall end' in a days work. All this while being watched and marked by 2 examiners. I passed that day, becoming the 4th Canadian to achieve this level of certification.

Pushing for certification is a personal thing to me. Being a goal orientated person, I have always wanted to push myself to achieve my Master Craftsman (level 4) cert through the DSWAGB ever since I heard it existed. I like the fact that it gives you something to strive for and also one of the most valuable parts is having your work assessed by 2 Masters who give you constructive feedback to help you improve as a craftsman.  

There are a few schemes out there in the world of dry stone walling that people have the option to go through. The DSWAGB's scheme is the most recognized scheme known world wide for good reason. It's been around the longest and has been the base for other schemes to work off of using DSWAGB masters to help get established. I'm currently working through both the DSWAGB's scheme as well as the DSC's scheme in Kentucky.

In 2013, I went through for my Advanced certification(level 3) and passed becoming the 3rd Canadian (second in Ontario) to reach this level with the DSWAGB. This test was a lot more intense than anything Ive done before in the craft. There are 2 parts to this test. Part A, an un-timed section that involes building 2 of 4 specific features with one feature being a mandatory curve section.

My Part A test wall

The second section (Part B) is a tear down and rebuild of 54 sqft of existing retaining wall in a day. The examiners found a section of retaining wall for me to do my test on near the DSWAC festival that year in Alton Ontario. It was an existing feildstone retaining wall built from stone off of the property 40 years prior to the festival. The Scottish homeowner has been working away for years building a good amount of retaining walls and features, using stone from in and around the property.  The home owner, an artist and wood turner, Barry young, was very kind to let me take down his work and have a hand in the walls on his property.

 

Before

The day before my test I went into the nearby forest and hand picked some added materials that I needed to make sure I built a strong wall with the proper mass to hold back the bank. Using fieldstone was a touch out of my element at the time as I didn't have a huge amount of experience in using it. But it was the local material and the philosophy that I follow is, 'it's not the stone but the skill of the waller'. A true dry stone craftsman should be able to build with whatever material is thrown their way, match the existing local style, and create a seamless repair.

On the day of the timed test, it poured rain about 90% of the time and the site became a pretty muddy place to work. Once I started stripping out the old wall, I had to deal with the unstable bank behind that kept collapsing in and leaving a good deal of soil that needed to be dug out from the foundation. I had to deal with roots and used a pry-bar to dislodge some boulders from the base that Canada had a good grip on. Once strip-out was finished and marked, I was off to start constructing the retaining wall in the time remaining.  It was a gruling day but I just put my head down and concentrated on the center of the wall, making it as strong as I could.

 After

 I succeeded in passing my cert and am proud of the work I put into this test. There are options to take this level of certification at testing sites, where there are prefabricated walls for you to strip out and rebuild, but I feel what I did that day really honored the test to it's fullest. I was put into a 'real world' walling scenario, using local stone that came straight out of the ground, matching the existing style and building a strong section of wall. This all in a days work while being under the pressure of being watched and marked by 2 examiners. 

:)

This upcoming year Im considering starting my features for my Masters cert and will keep anyone out there who is following posted.