Stone Cutting Manual Information required

[Richard Emmans <r_emmans@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you are using feathers and wedges to split your
granite it is not in relation to your rock that you have
to decide on the depth of your drilling but in relation
to your feathers. (But get larger feathers for larger
blocks) The feathers should hang freely in the
boreholes, so drill approximately ten millimeter or so
deeper than the feathers. The distance in between the
holes is a matter of preference, I like to have
something between thirty and fourty centimeters space.

Leave a good distance to edges and corners though. These
are extremely fragile and liable to break off in big
chunks if the holes are too near them. Usually a sound
drilling will suffice to direct the feathers' force in
the desired direction, you can, however, either drill
smaller holes in the opposite face of the rock orhave
the rock rest on a round steel bar where you want the
crack to open. These measures simply give a clearer
direction to the force.

If you are splitting gneiss be prepared for some real
fun. What appears to be layers in the material (the
flattened bits of feldspar) make it extremely difficult
to split against and extremely enjoyable to split along.

To split against, use the same technique as with granite
and be ready to sweat a lot. To split along the 'layers'
you can either apply the same technique or use pointed
chisels and work your way around the material along the
desired line of breaking. It takes a bit longer probably
but it is very satisfying and you don't have the
boreholes in the material. Just punch the material along
the line in about three to five centimeter gaps
consistently around and around.

Enjoy the splitting
Richard