Tools for very hard stone

[Bill Brayman <blb@zzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Jane,

With all this talk of carbide chisels breaking easily, I have to come
to their defense. The main two ways I know of to break a carbide tipped
chisel is to either break the corner off a flat chisel or to break the
tip from its soldered base. Or more generally to concentrate the stress
at a weak point. A common way to break the tip off is to chisel deep
into a crevice where sideways stress breaks the tip off. Other than
that you should be able to beat these little puppies to your heart's
content (awful figure of speech, sorry). Of course there are different
qualities of carbide tipped chisels, but a good chisel should be quite
rugged.

With hard stone, the sculptor makes more use of abrasive tools. Both an
angle grinder and a die grinder with small saw blades and points. And
of course a nice pitching chisel for coarse work. And once you get into
the feel of it, bushing is an effective way to go, especially to avoid
the limitations and obvious style of a saw blade.

If you are used to soft stone, you may be trying to work too fast. The
harder the stone the slower the progress of course. The stone is
telling you to get into a different rhythm.

Whatever you do keep up the fun part.

Regards,
Bill