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

[rsmuck]

At Manchu Pichu in Peru, they had a display of a big rock with holes drilled 
in it, they filled the holes with water and when it froze the rock would 
crack!!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David E. Smucker" <davesmucker at hotmail.com>
To: <artgawk at thegrid.net>; "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Feather & wedge (Re: Free the Stake!)


>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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