Ashlar

Ashlar (/ˈæʃlər/) is a cut and dressed stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape.

[4] Ashlar is in contrast to rubble masonry, which employs irregularly shaped stones, sometimes minimally worked or selected for similar size, or both.

In either case, it generally uses a joining material such as mortar to bind the blocks together, although dry ashlar construction, metal ties, and other methods of assembly have been used.

The word is attested in Middle English and derives from the Old French aisselier, from the Latin axilla, a diminutive of axis, meaning "plank".

[6] "Clene hewen ashler" often occurs in medieval documents; this means tooled or finely worked, in contradistinction to rough-axed faces.

Masonic groupings, which such societies term jurisdictions, ashlars are used as a symbolic metaphor for how one's personal development relates to the tenets of their lodge.

Dry ashlar masonry laid in parallel courses on an Inca wall at Machu Picchu
Ashlar masonry north gable of Banbury Town Hall , Oxfordshire
Ashlar polygonal masonry in Cuzco , Peru
Quarry-faced red Longmeadow sandstone in random ashlar was specified by architect Henry Hobson Richardson for the North Congregational Church (Springfield, Massachusetts, 1871). Although each block was cut with great precision on adjacent faces, the external face was left rough as when removed from the quarry. The blocks were laid randomly without continuous courses or vertical and horizontal joints.