R E - E M E R G I N G U . S . S T O N E I N D U S T R Y

In less than 10 years, the owner of Devonian Stone of New York, Inc. turned a discovery of an inactive quarry on his property into a valuable resource for New York sandstone

by Erin Avery

W hen Robert Bellospirito sold his construction business on Long Island and purchased40 acres of land in upstate New Yorkover a decade ago, he had no idea thatthe stone quarry soon to be discoveredon his property would be the start of hisnow thriving business, Devonian Stoneof New York, Inc. The key to his successhas been not only the high-qualityGlacier Blue Devonian sandstone hequarries and fabricates, but also thecreative and innovative steps he hastaken to build his company. In 1995, a neighbor pointed out toBellospirito that there was an oldquarry on his land. “He took me upthere with some friends who werequarrymen all their lives, and theyshowed me how to cut the stone withhammers and chisels,” explainedBellospirito. “That’s how I first startedto mine this quarry. I cut a couple ofpalettes (1,000 square feet) by hand,

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Devonian Stone of New York, Inc. in Windsor, NY, is a producer of Glacier BlueDevonian sandstone. The owner, Robert Bellospirito, actually established the businessafter discovering an abandoned quarry on his residential property.

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brought it down to Long Island and soldit.” And that was just the beginning. To speed up the process, Bellospiritosoon began to purchase equipment,starting with an automated saw with a6-foot, 6-inch blade, and worked his

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A wire saw is used to remove a bed of sandstone in the quarry.

The company can produce 500,000 square feet of dimension stone per year.

way up to the 20-acre, 13,000-square-foot fabrication facility in operationtoday, which has the ability to produce500,000 square feet of top-qualitydimension stone per year. A hardy soul with an enterprising

spirit, Bellospirito is the quintessentialentrepreneur who is always thinkingoutside the box and devising newmethods for perfecting his trade andincreasing productivity. His naturalcuriosity led him to not only seek out

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At the fabrication plant, a blockcutter with a 6-foot, 6-inch blade is used to cut theDevonian sandstone into smaller pieces, which will be turned into finished products.

formed, how this material wasdeposi ted here , and what i t wassubjected to in order to achieve this levelof quality.” Found only in New York, GlacierBlue Devonian sandstone is asedimentary sandstone formed duringthe Devonian Period. This striking andworkable building stone evolved during410 million years of glacial pressuresand natural mountain-forming events. “I’ve crossed blue ice glaciers up innorthern British Columbia on horsebackand I’ve seen what they look like, “ saidBellospirito, when explaining where thename Glacier Blue came from. “It’s abeautiful blue ice color. This stone has ababy blue color similar to that. Also,glaciers were somewhat directlyresponsible for the quality of thismaterial because of the weight andpressure that they had put on top of it.” When asked if it can be foundanywhere else in the world, Bellospiritoreplies, “Not this material.”

Environmental awareness Once he knew about the geologicalhistory of Devonian sandstone, the trickwas locating it. He developed ascientific mining method that was notonly environmentally friendly, but alsoan accurate way of determining bed sizeand quality. “When I got into this business, I sawthe way that everybody was locating thistype of mineral,” he explained. “Theywould look for outcroppings along theedges of the mountain and takebulldozers and dig a fairly good sizehole. Ninety percent of the time theydon’t find what they’re looking for, sothey just leave a big gaping hole in theside of the mountain. Coming from LongIsland, I moved here for one reason-this place is beautiful, and I’ve got a lotof respect for the environment. So Ithought there had to be some way ofexploring for this mineral withouttearing up the countryside.” Instead of bulldozers, Bellospiritodeveloped a scientific, modern way ofexploring for the mineral that is notonly efficient and environmentallyfriendly, but has been approved by theNew York State Geological Survey andthe New York State Department ofEnvironmental Conservation.Furthermore, Bill Kelly of the NYSGSand Paul Misiaszek, formerly of the

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knowledge of the history of the stone,but also develop new ways to locate thehighest quality material possible. With the help of geologist Bill Kellyof the New York State Geological

Survey, Bellospirito began to learn aboutthe geological formation of Devoniansandstone. “Bill Kelly taught me morethan the basic geology of the area, “saidBellospirito. “He taught me how it was

Blocks are loaded on flatbed trucks at the quarry and taken to the company’s 13,000-square-foot fabricating facility.

NYDEC and now with the Bureau of Land Managementin Arizona, has credited Bellospirito with the first mod-ern scientific mineral exploration for Devonian sandstone. Being environmentally minded, Bellospirito looks for pre-existing quarries to mine. “I’m a pilot, and I have my ownairplane, and one of the things I use it for is exploration,” heexplained. “I go out and try to find older mine sites becauseall of the layered flagstone has already been removed, puttingme closer to the solid blue Devonian sandstone underneath,and these older mines are a mess and need to beenvironmentally reclaimed anyway”.

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Finished material is cut to size with Devonian Stone’s patented Finishing System.

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Once the sandstone has been mined, Bellospirito makes apoint of reclaiming the land by refilling the quarry so that theland is once again usuable. “I have to think of a systematic,efficient environmentally friendly way to develop a mining-and also a land reclamation - plan. It’s not only how I’mgoing to take the material out, but it’s just as important tofigure out how we’re going to put the land back into a usablestate once we’re done.” In removing the stone from the quarry, the blocks are cutout of the ground through wire sawing. Bellospirito is a

licensed blaster and instructor, andDevonian Stone of New York, Inc. doesa l l of i t s own b l as t i ng for th eoverburden. The quarrier claims the success of hiscompany is largely due to the quality ofhis employees, however, he still makessure to be personally involved in allaspects of the business - every step ofthe way. “This includes everything fromfirst going onto a piece of raw land todetermine if there might be thepossibility of finding this material, thendoing the mineral exploration, “ heexplained. “The next step is mine sitedevelopment. So that’s the quarryaspect of it. Then it’s the quality control

The company’s facility is equipped with a Gravellona Macchine Marmo (GMM) automatic precision bridge saw and GMM automatic slab polisher.

of blocks coming out of the mine sitegetting shipped down to the plant,cutting the material up into a finishedproduct, all aspects of production -finishing, right down to quality controland shipping.” As if that weren’tenough, there are always inventive newideas to explore that will help the entireprocess run even more smoothly.

Building machinery In 2001, Bellospirito looked intoacquiring a flame finishing machine thatcould handle the amount of stone heneeded to process, but he felt the optionsavailable didn’t offer enough speed forthe cost. So, he decided to build his own.

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Devonian Stone of New York, Inc. President, Robert Bellospirito (right), with William Kelly,Associate Director, NYS Geological Survey (center) and James Albanese Ph.D Earth SciencesDept., SUNY Oneonta, NY (left), trying to identify mineralogical imperfections in the stone.

Bellospirito built his own flaming machine with the assistance of Phil Ward of MaverickAutomation, who stepped in to help with the electronics and programming. The machineand the entire conveyor system, which is about 80 feet long are fully automated, allowingit to efficiently burn 8 to 10 square feet of stone a minute.

Starting by drawing out the designwith pencil on paper, he then fabricatedthe machine out of raw steel. “I wentand bought all the raw steel, cut thesteel, machined it myself and puteverything together, “ he said, whendescribing the process. “I built it entirelywith my two hands.” Phil Ward of Maverick Automation

stepped in to help with the electronicsand programming. The machine wasput into operation in January 2002,and has been running flawlessly eversince. The machine and the entireconveyor system, which is about 89fee t lon g, are fu l l y au tomated ,allowing it to efficiently burn 8 to 10square feet of stone a minute. Glacier

TMBlue Devonian sandstone is the onlystone currently produced using thispatented technolgy. Aside from inventing andconstructing his company’s patentedflame finished, Bellospirito routinelyreworks and transforms othermachinery and equipment he uses sothat it better suits his needs. When

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Devonian sandstone is also ideal for exteriorapplications. This residence in Salem, NY, was built byW.A. Kelly Company.

The companycompletes manycustomized jobs suchas the countertop inthis Binghamton, NY,home, which wasdesigned by JulieSweet.

asked about the importance of beinginnovative, he responds, “It’s crucial toproductivity, otherwise I wouldn’t beable to produce nearly as much.” The end result is a sandstone productthat can be used for a wide variety ofpurposes, including everything fromcustom pieces for homeowners to masonsupplies for complex architectural jobs. Each piece of Glacier BlueDevonian sandstone is cut from a bed ofsolid rock. Since it is not a natural cleftstone, it is possible to control the size,tolerance and quality of the stone. Withthe strict quality control in the industryand cut tolerances of inch, itcan be cut and finished to exactingspecifications. “It’s a fantastic building stone,” saidBellospirito. “It’s largely made up ofsilica with a quartzite cement, whichgives the material incredible strength. Ithas excellent wear capabilities, but it’salso an encredibly workable stone, soyou can make almost anything out of it.” For proof of the stone’s high level ofstructural integrity, it was subjected totests by Atlantic Testing Laboratories,

Ltd. in Albany, NY, and Soil & MaterialTesting, Inc. in Binghamton, NY done inaccordance wi th ASTM C 127specifications. When a concentatedload was applied at the center of a 48-x18 - x 2-inch-thick paver supported onfour corners, the paver withstood over3,000 pounds before failure occurred.The Flexural Strength ASTM C880 is2,563 psi and the Compressive Strengthis over 19,000 psi. The Glacier Blue Devonianssandstone product line includes but isnot limited to: blocks, slabs, pavingstones, wall and floor tiles, cladding,coun ter tops , s teps , wal l and piercaps, and coping as well as structuralbuilding stone. Finishes include: sawn,flamed, honed, high honed, polished,bushhammered, sandblasted, river-washed and many others. “We don’t do any installations, but Iowned a construction company on LongIsland for 15 years that did installations,so I am an expert at installation, and Iam more than happy to giverecommendations on installing finishedpieces,” said Bellospirito.

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