The giant granite pavers were owned by Hulk rigging ; a crane outfit from
Brooklyn owned by a tough Jew with a broken nose; meybe  queens , but the
last time I saw him(Barry) he was sweating out a visit from sammy the Bull ;
and as brave men run in my family; I went an took care of my racing pigeons
with eyes wide shut.....

but not in Ithaca where my newphew plays football (nose guard) on scholarship
(sophomore now) man talk about big boys. 275 and can run like the wind; if I
were to take he and his budies out where do you sugest I do that???
........lastly I just did 3 antebellum chimblys in June....do not consolidate
repeate 2 times..do not.consol..lo-date..
..do selective take down; get the best roofer or board man to scaffold it. I
use a 12 by 12 cross braced tri angular scaffold of 1" angle iron that passes
on both sides of the chimbly( dislexit masonry term) which I had made ; the
mason must have room to store or send down the brick for cleaning; If the
back up lime mortar is sound it can be used as a backstop to selective
repoint then top with your historic mortar    ...or....after cleaning the
inside parge it with a 4 1 1 grout using fine sand remember to pre wet; parge
as much of the inside as you can by hand and let set overnight ; then repoint
your outside using your historic mortar (6 1:1 );let set
                  meybe two days then the chimney may be secure enough to
come back and reparge further down inside by hand without damage ; all this
depends on conditions ; all this can take as much time as complete take
down... if conditions go below roof line  you have no choise.... the most
difficult part is getting the brick clean inside and out for reworking or
repointing... and to a staging area if resetting to knock the old mortar off
of and wash ......scaffold must be large with saftey bars;  where the mason
can easily rebuild from. The trick is the scaffolding;do not skip on its
design. Best Michael ..... Ps  You might ask Ken to do the red suit test
around the holidays.  lv cookies and milk....I will be duelling at dawn in
Weehawken and taking the waters at Cooper Union next week; anyone interested
in being a shill at a 3 card monty cardboard box at 14 and Bway.... wire
Palladin..... oops I mean Ken. cheerio just now  Michael