[TheForge] Feather & wedge (Re: Free the Stake!)

[David E. Smucker]

I wonder how old this method of cutting stone is?  It would seem that since 
both the feathers and wedge work in compression that this would work with 
bronze tools.  Wrought iron would not be required.

Dave
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer" <artgawk at thegrid.net>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 2:29 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Feather & wedge (Re: Free the Stake!)


>I talked to an old Swede who said that his first job as a little kid in his 
>father's stone yard was splitting huge blocks of stone. They'd lift him up 
>onto the drilled block with a box of feathers and wedges and a kid sized 
>hammer and he'd set up the wedges and feathers in their respective holes. 
>Then he'd go down the line striking the wedges and listening to the sound. 
>The object was to match the pitch on each hole. When he'd gone the length, 
>he'd go back to the beginning and raise the pitch another note. Eventually 
>there was a loud cracking sound and someone would come and lift him back 
>down....pf
>
> Andrew Vida wrote:
>>
>>
>> Mike Spencer wrote:
>>> ...I figured out that the reverse taper
>>> in the feathers is as important as the taper in the wedge and that the
>>> tapers should more or less match.
>>
>>     IMO there is nothing more or less about it.  The tapers should match 
>> with good precision.  You want as much sliding contact as possible to 
>> avoid jamming the wedge or otherwise ruining the surfaces.  Also, the 
>> better the contact, the better the distribution of the force will be. 
>> Point stresses may cause the stone to fail unpredictably and in undesired 
>> ways.  You want the force nicely distributed along the lengths of the 
>> feathers.
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