Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/29/traditional-stonecutting-metho.html
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I missed the step where he drilled all the starter holes. Did he explain how? If he did, I missed. it.
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That’s what I was curious about too. Absent from this video.
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I’ve done this many times in my yard. Hammer drill with a mason bit sized to the same size as the wedges. There’s a couple companies in Vermont that sell these wedges with the “feathers”. The ones I’ve used are much smaller than these. Also granite fieldstone never splits that nicely for me >grin<
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What’s a manual hammer drill like in a traditional stonecutting setup? I found the below on the YouTubes but that seems impractical in this setting…
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Neat, never seen one like that. I usually use an electric hammer drill, but there are special drills that rock climbers use which I’ve seen used as well. If you watch the longer video in the post, you’ll see the guy doesn’t even drill. He just starts a hole with another wedge.
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Watching people hammer mushroomed spikes like that gives me the willies ever since I watched “Shake Hands with Danger.”
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Which is funny, because this is probably the safest thing you can do involving rocks. You don’t even need to hit them as hard as the people in the videos online show it. You’re just taking up the slack after each round of hits. Although it does go faster with a bigger hammer. Most important thing is to wear goggles.
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“After hours of careful work, now he has two problems.” Pieces. He now has two pieces .
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He got 99 problems, but a 13 ton rock ain’t one.
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If he is going completely traditional (no power tools) he would have used a star drill something like this:
I’ve used them on brick and concrete, but never on stone.
The technique is hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn […] hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn […]
[coffee break]
hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn, hit, 1/4 turn …
[treat blisters]
and so on.
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The pre-iron-age way to do this is with wooden wedges. Get the wedges in there*, and soak them with water. Keep them wet over the course of a few days(?). The wood swells and splits the rock. This is how the Egyptians built everything, if my high-school history lessons are still in my brain somewhere.
*getting them started can be done with existing cracks, or by bashing with other rocks. You get less control over where the split happens, so you have do more shaping afterwards (with more bashing with rocks).
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Came to say this.
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Likewise.
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He has one problem, one BIG problem, throughout the video: He himself or objects of interest are often out of focus … 
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I skimmed through. Neat.
I guess if you’re going to use the “traditional” method, one would still wear sandals. But yeesh, a hammer that close to my toes I’d want some good steel toed boots!
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I have some folks I know into ancient aliens…
“But I thought only ALIENS could have the technology to cut rocks like that! Only a laser could do it”
(and I don’t know WHY always with the lasers. Do we do that NOW? Is big mining keeping it secret??")
Then people post videos like this.
“but what about the holes! he MUST have used a power tool for that!”
So, thank you for the information on the star bits, AND on rock climbers. A very obvious example I overlooked.
*unless rock climbers use lasers. IANARockcliber.
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I could listen to this guy’s accent & his granite xylophone all day.
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“The secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!”
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Also the Incas, at at Machu Pichu or Ollentaytambo. Or so we think.
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