planes in granite

["daedelus lanthanien" <daedeluslanthanien@zzzzzzzzzzz>]

Hello Norman, Sounds like you have a picture of a exposed metamorphic
pluton. The cooling action of the pluton physically changes the size of
the crystalline structure in regards to the time it takes cooling,
larger crystals would form towards the interior. Furthermore if you
would think of the action of a centrifuge in geological time, the
density of the stone increases with depth in the pluton. The density of
the structure is controlled by gravity for the most part as opposed to
the spinning of our planet, and it sorts out the material heaviest to
lightest over time. These differences form the planes you speak of. I
should also mention that plutons burn their way around in the crust.
Your diving board could be a piece of tough resilient stone picked up
while the pluton was still molten and imbedded in its top. The pluton
did not have enough time to deal with this stone before it popped
through the surface frozen. After which erosion put its mark upon this
pluton. That's my theory. I wrote a letter regarding crystalline
structure quite awhile back Norman, it is in the archives. Granites are
made up of many, many crystals. The splitting planes are easiest along
the planes of the crystlline lattice, at least in granites that are
homogenous and not messy in varied crystalline lattices due to differing
material being present in the same mass.

I seen your diamond blade question, this is always a touchy subject. I
would like to be able to say blah blah blah this many hours......but
that would be stupid. Diamond blades will last a very long time when
they are selected and used properly. I get really pissed off when I
catch my younger brother cutting tires up with mine for instance. A
segment will go ZING! past you head during the next job because heat
damages your core and wrecks the core tension. Kinda reminds me of a
noodle, a hateful rotten dangerous noodle, even noodle loving Italians
would hate it. The harder the stone, the softer the matrix, test, test,
test, just don't go so soft as to give up diamonds before they are good
and burnt. When I go with too hard of a matrix, and the saw slows down
through the stone, I freshen my matrix on a piece of pig iron or an
angle iron to get my cutting speed back. Diamond blades are very
economical and ensure the proper cutting depth nicely. I hate
composites, they just.....suck.

daed