How to split a thirteen-ton granite slab with a two-pound hammer.

Answer: pegs, and patience. A lot of patience, although less than you’d think.  The video below claims that the first split took about an hour:

Via Laughing Squid.  I do not know that this is the method used in antiquity to split rocks – it’s clearly easier to do this with iron or steel tools than it would be other metals – but the principles are easy to grasp, and it would certainly work. Watching this was surprisingly engrossing, too.  I feel that I am (very, very) slightly less ignorant about stone than I was before; I applaud the skill of the videographers.

2 thoughts on “How to split a thirteen-ton granite slab with a two-pound hammer.”

  1. It’s how our ancestors did Stonehenge – having split a lot of wood with a maul and wedges, I’m not surprised the same way works with rock. I liked the musicality of the hammer on the wedges in the rock.

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