5 ms·

I think another approach would be a piece of paper and a crayon or such. I'd be reluctant to carry around a bunch of aluminum foil for this purpose, but paper

I think another approach would be a piece of paper and a crayon or such. I'd be reluctant to carry around a bunch of aluminum foil for this purpose, but paper and crayons feels a bit less wasteful to me. I imagine the environmental cost would be less (though I could be wrong about that)

dwohnitmok 6y ago
I think the worry would be about how much a paper and crayon wears down the stone underneath (which the article alludes to with gravestone rubbings). A damp sponge on top of aluminum foil still isn't contact-free, but I would guess it to be less of an impact than rubbing with a crayon. (It is also way more efficient to recycle aluminum compared to paper or wax).
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Surely because aluminum is extremely energy-intensive to extract from ore, not because its recycling process uses significantly less energy than paper recycling?
  - dwohnitmok 6y ago
    IIRC almost all aluminum foil comes from recycled aluminum whereas most writing paper is virgin paper so the energy comparison is between aluminum recycling and paper manufacturing. I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but my impression is that paper manufacturing is quite energy-intensive as well. My bet is that recycled aluminum wins out.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
macintux 6y ago
Seems like you should be able to smooth out and reuse the foil, but perhaps not.
interestica 6y ago
From the article: >The downside is that, unlike gravestone rubbings–which I learned are harmful to the gravestone–it’s not easy to keep and store foil rubbings.
- eru 6y ago
  Of course, you can take a picture of the foil rubbing.
  - ChrisLomont 6y ago
    Which he states.
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    If one thinks it might be nice to leave a transcription for the next people who wonder about the stone, try something like: https://www.nationalband.com/2702-write-on-tag/ https://www.nationalband.com/2702-write-on-tag/
- amatecha 6y ago
  Ah yeah, I saw that but I wasn't sure what they meant by "gravestone rubbings" since you can also use pencil, chalk, charcoal... and not even necessarily paper either, so it was kind of ambiguous to me. I guess any of them might cause some slight degradation of the stone though, presumably...
aklemm 6y ago
In my family's plot there is a 100+ year old stone that's never been readable in my lifetime. We were always curious. Recently visiting now with kids, it dawned on me standing there that we could rub it with one of their crayons. It worked INCREDIBLY well. The unreadable stone was now clear as day on the paper.
- zxcvbn4038 6y ago
  Any thoughts if it is appropriate to replace worn stones?
  - aklemm 6y ago
    No idea. It is informative, though, for people to have a good idea about how long their monument will last. It's not forever!

dwohnitmok 6y ago

I think the worry would be about how much a paper and crayon wears down the stone underneath (which the article alludes to with gravestone rubbings). A damp sponge on top of aluminum foil still isn't contact-free, but I would guess it to be less of an impact than rubbing with a crayon. (It is also way more efficient to recycle aluminum compared to paper or wax).

saagarjha 6y ago
Surely because aluminum is extremely energy-intensive to extract from ore, not because its recycling process uses significantly less energy than paper recycling?
- dwohnitmok 6y ago
  IIRC almost all aluminum foil comes from recycled aluminum whereas most writing paper is virgin paper so the energy comparison is between aluminum recycling and paper manufacturing. I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but my impression is that paper manufacturing is quite energy-intensive as well. My bet is that recycled aluminum wins out.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

macintux 6y ago

Seems like you should be able to smooth out and reuse the foil, but perhaps not.

interestica 6y ago

From the article: >The downside is that, unlike gravestone rubbings–which I learned are harmful to the gravestone–it’s not easy to keep and store foil rubbings.

eru 6y ago
Of course, you can take a picture of the foil rubbing.
- ChrisLomont 6y ago
  Which he states.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  If one thinks it might be nice to leave a transcription for the next people who wonder about the stone, try something like: https://www.nationalband.com/2702-write-on-tag/ https://www.nationalband.com/2702-write-on-tag/
amatecha 6y ago
Ah yeah, I saw that but I wasn't sure what they meant by "gravestone rubbings" since you can also use pencil, chalk, charcoal... and not even necessarily paper either, so it was kind of ambiguous to me. I guess any of them might cause some slight degradation of the stone though, presumably...

aklemm 6y ago

In my family's plot there is a 100+ year old stone that's never been readable in my lifetime. We were always curious. Recently visiting now with kids, it dawned on me standing there that we could rub it with one of their crayons. It worked INCREDIBLY well. The unreadable stone was now clear as day on the paper.

zxcvbn4038 6y ago
Any thoughts if it is appropriate to replace worn stones?
- aklemm 6y ago
  No idea. It is informative, though, for people to have a good idea about how long their monument will last. It's not forever!