Interest in stone work, shaping, squaring?

I've got many tons of field stone on my property and have been using them for years to make retaing wall, borders etc. I wish i knew how to shape stone better. I know there are some special tools for this but even if I had the tools I'm not sure I'd know how to use them correctly. Anybody else into stone work?

I used to cut stone. What kind of stone do you have around there, limestone? Most of what I find in my yard here is irregularly shaped, flat-ish red shale (?), mostly not too useful. I'm trying to make a rock garden on one side of the house with it.
I can tell you how we used to make blocks, steps, pavers, bird baths, etc. out of granite, mostly by hand with different chisels and a hammer, where I used to work... but this probably is not a good forum for talk about stone work. Maybe one of the admins can move this somewhere more appropriate, or start another thread maybe ?

Around here we've got mostly sandstone which tends to come in fairly regular shapes. We do have limestone too but I don't like the look of it as well. I probably should have asked if this topic would make an appropriate forum all by itself. I just don't know how many folks would be interested. I'd love to know how to make steps and pavers. I don't even know where to buy decent tools at an affordable price....all I have is a stone hammer, flat head with a curved tail like a claw hammer shape and some old chisels i've used for cutting bolts or steel. If one of the Admins would move this to a more appropriate spot thats fine with me. Thanks, Steve

I am hoiping to build a rock wall at home and at my grandma's this year so a forum on working with stone on here would be great!

I do a lot of stone shaping for my rocks that prodominate in the garden. Mostly I use 3 sizes of rock hammar. One has a round head to crack round stones in pieces and I also use a large Basalt working stone to serve as an edge to control where laminates break. Most of the skill is knowing the direction of layering in the stone to get what you want. The old theory of if it doesn't work the 2nd time get a bigger hammar works pretty well. I have several malls to do the big stuff. Sandstone is the easiest, pudding stone is the hardest. Also I wear a heavy pair of carharts and motorcycle helmet with plastic screen when doing the big stuff.