Granite, one of the hardest materials on earth
Granite is one of the hardest materials on earth, comes in almost any color and will take a high polish. For these reasons, granite is an ideal material for sculpting works of art. However, because it is so hard, few cultures, other than the ancient Egyptians, were able to use it as a sculpting material before the advent of power tools in the early twentieth century. (Source 3)
Stone Saws
The hardness of a diamond blade is required to sculpt granite.
This type of saw is a hand-held, radial saw, very similar to an industrial grinder. For sawing through granite, diamond blades are required.
Hammer Drill
The power of a hammer drill is needed for granite.
A hammer drill with carbide-tipped drill bits is used to drill small holes in granite, but a pneumatic (powered with compressed air) rock drill is required for larger holes. The rock drill shoots air down the center of the bit so that granite dust is blown out of the hole through the tip of the bit.
Polisher
Abrasive paper with a grit of 3,000 is used for final polishing.
A polisher resembles a hand-held disc sander with a Velcro wheel onto which different grades of abrasive paper are attached. The abrasive paper for granite is made of ground diamonds affixed to the paper with a hard resin and comes in grits from 40 (coarse) to 3,000 (very fine). This type of polisher has a tube that supplies water to the polishing surface during operation to wash away the dust particles.
Chisels
Hand chiseling puts the "work" in "artwork."
Chisels come in four basic types: point, flat edge, toothed and rondel (rounded). All chisels used on granite must be carbide-tipped. It is important to remember that carbide, while very strong, is also very brittle and can be chipped if used incorrectly, damaging the chisel.
Point chisels rough out the basic shape of the sculpture. Toothed chisels are used next to remove the points and creases left by the point chisel. Flat and rondel chisels refine the shape and prepare the sculpture for finishing.
Hammers
Pneumatic hammers cannot fully replace old-fashioned hammers.
Hammers, both manual and pneumatic, are used in conjunction with chisels and come in a variety of shapes and weights designed for varying degrees of detail work. A pneumatic hammer, in use since the early 1900s, is a hand-held tool with an attached air hose. Chisels are put into the hammer mechanism, where they come in contact with a piston. Pneumatic hammers are much faster and require less work than sculpting with manual hammers, but that is not to say that they can replace the technique of old-fashioned hammer-swinging.
Pinchers
Pinchers looks like bigger, heavier chisels.
Pinchers function much like chisels, but they are larger and heavier for removing large chunks of stone.
Rasps and Riflers
Rasps and riflers leave a textured finish.
These are hand tools used for the first stage of the finishing process to file down the final shape and produce an etched, textured finish. This effect may or may not be smoothed out by polishing by the artist.
