Egyptian Stone Cutting Tools

In basic terms any tool should have a greater hardness than the material being cut or shaped.

Egyptian stone cutting tools. Reproduction ancient egyptian stone mason s tools used for carving demonstrations. Filmed in the egyptian museum of antiquities this granite box shows strong evidence for a lost high technology in ancient egypt. Details about how to cut stones specially what tools to use for hard granite stones. 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.

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

Franz löhner thinks that only forged iron chisels can cut through the hard granite. 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. Machine tools in ancient egypt.