Egyptian Stone Cutting Tools

As neither copper nor bronze is sufficiently hard to cut such stones as basalt diorite granite quartzite and schist.

Egyptian stone cutting tools. It was very likely copper since bronze tools were not in use until the middle kingdom ca. Reproduction ancient egyptian stone mason s tools used for carving demonstrations. Franz löhner thinks that only forged iron chisels can cut through the hard granite. The mean variation of the cutting of the stone from a straight line and from a true square is but 0 1 inch in a length of 75 inches up the face an amount of accuracy equal to the most modern opticians straight edges of such a length.

For the time being the balance of evidence seems to suggest the mainstream view that primitive metal and wooden tools used by common stone masons were sufficient for cutting through granite. Franz löhner doesn t allege that the ancient egyptians already knew the difficult and elaborate procedure of making wrought iron but that they acquired the valuable iron by trading. These joints with an area. Details about how to cut stones specially what tools to use for hard granite stones.

Ancient egyptian stone drilling. The pink granite of which the unfinished obelisk is composed has a mohs hardness that sits between the scale of 6 and 7 the maximum being diamond at 10 and thus is more or less the same hardness as dolerite making the latter a poor material for shaping the former. Although the idea was first raised by petrie.