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Originally Posted by Jens
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Maksutov
That's funny. Stonecutters have been producing smooth and flat surfaces on marble and granite blocks for centuries. Visit an old graveyard in New England some time and check out the near Grade B surface plate faces on some of the stones from the 1600s.
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My understanding, and I'm no expert here, is that one of the major issues is the fact that the Egyptians had not developed iron, and so were doing this all with copper tools. It allegedly is very difficult and time consuming to drill into granite using copper. Of course, I've never tried it, so I can only repeat what I've heard. |
Check the thread I linked to. No need to drill, just to cut. Plus if one finds the right kind of materials, fracture lines play a role. Egyptian equivalents of diamond-tipped cutting tools were a factor too. All the matrix (or toolholder) has to do is support the insert, the insert tool produces the chips.
Finally, the general assumption re the Egyptian blocks always seems to be that what the quarry produced by cutting/fracturing/etc. was the finished product. Not necessarily. Once you have the general shape there are many processes that date back to ancient times for refining the rough-cut surfaces. Among these are grinding and polishing.
As an old telescope maker, give me a couple blocks of granite or marble with rough cut surfaces, some sacks of sand or other appropriate materials, from coarse to fine, and some water, and I'll produce a surface that's like a mirror.