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.

Reproduction ancient egyptian stone mason s tools used for carving demonstrations. 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. Ancient egyptian stone drilling. These joints with an area.

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. It was very likely copper since bronze tools were not in use until the middle kingdom ca. Although the idea was first raised by petrie.

Franz löhner thinks that only forged iron chisels can cut through the hard granite. In basic terms any tool should have a greater hardness than the material being cut or shaped. 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.