Drawing a trefoil_

Stonemasonry technical skills

atSkillsTech Australia

Method

•Construct an equilateral triangle inside a circle and then draw concentric circles from the points of this triangle.

•Draw concentric circles around these circles from the original centre.

•Draw intersecting arcs from the centre point and the three triangle points.

Trefoil construction

Step 1: Draw a vertical line and a horizontal line intersecting at point A in the centre of the page

Step 2: Centre compasses at A and draw a circle radius 50mm

Step 3: Keeping the same radius, centre compasses where the circle crosses the vertical line at B and step off points C D E F G around the circle.

Check for accuracy- the compasses should step off six times exactly

Step 4: Join the intersection points CF and DG through centre A

Step 5: Keeping the same radius, draw circles centred at each point B D and F, intersecting at points C E and G

Step 6: From centre A, draw circles around the previous circles at radius 100mm and radius 110mm

Step 7: Set compasses to radius 55mm and draw arcs centred at B D and F. Intersect with arcs centred at A, radius 95mm

Step 8: Clean up construction lines and darken outlines