Egyptian Stone Cutting Tools

Machine tools in ancient egypt.

Egyptian stone cutting tools. 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. 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. These joints with an area.

As neither copper nor bronze is sufficiently hard to cut such stones as basalt diorite granite quartzite and schist. Ancient egyptian stone drilling. Reproduction ancient egyptian stone mason s tools used for carving demonstrations. 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.

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