Wedge and feathers for splitting stone?

[melonkernel]

Has anyone of you made wedges and feathers for splitting stone?
(as can be seen used here: YouTube - Breaking the stone

Do i need to use extra durable steel for the wedge?
One smith once said that you could use spring steel from an old pin-harrow for the feathers, and if you found some old hand stone drill (the one you hit on with a hammer, then twist a quarter turn and hit again to drill holes in stones) you could use those for the wedge.
What is your saying on this, i don't happen to have a lot of those hand-drills lying around.

i know that you should have the feathers thicker downwards, so that when you hit on the wedge it gives an even pressure all along the feathers.

oh, another thing, for the shaping of the feathers, who need to be round on the outside and flat on the inside, i need to make a hardy tool for that, what i the best way to make such. I doubt my little bench-drill can drill that large holes in a piece of steel. Are there common scrap-metal that have that sized-holes in them already?

I am a new blacksmith, and new to this forum aswell, so sorry if i have posted this in the wrong forum or such.
(i am in Skutnabba, Peders

Edited August 18, 2008 by melonkernel
read the sticky about mention where you are.

[irnsrgn]

Feathers were usually made of copper. You can do a good job by just forging pieces of hot rolled to a taper shape like a tapered punch and not use the feathers, That's what I use for splitting concrete slabs. You use them just like wedges and feathers, start them all in drilled holes and then just hit them one hit in succession till the slab splits along the drilled hole line.

Edited August 18, 2008 by irnsrgn

[arkie]

I realize this is an OLD topic, but questions regarding the wedges and feathers:  Can one just use mild steel stock or do you need a steel that can be heat treated?  And, if made with a steel that can be heat treated, to what color(s)?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I would say mild steel will work. I had a friend that years ago used RR spikes for the wedges and I made him mild steel feathers that tapered in thickness. He built and repaired a lot of the stone walls in Eureka Springs and sadly passed away several years ago.

[Frosty]

If you've watched videos of masons splitting rock with slips and wedges it's surprising how lightly they tap the wedges. I doubt heat treatment is necessary but if you feel you must you want tough to resist possible lateral force from a missed blow. Any mushrooming can be easily dressed with a file. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

The ancients did just fine splitting stone with wrought iron wedges and feathers.  So, mild steel should work just fine.  IIRC the ancient Egyptian used the same technique with copper implements.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[BillyBones]

Didnt some of those ancient builders use wooden wedges to split stone? For some reason i seem to recall learning that years ago. 

[George N. M.]

I believe so.  I have heard of using wooden wdges and them pouring water on the wedges to expand them and exert lateral splitting pressure.  I've seen videos of folk in Norway removing large boulders by building a fire and getting the rock hot and then throwing water on the rock to split it from thermal shock.  Seemed to work pretty well.  Then you have to haul away a pile of smaller rocks and gravel.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[arkie]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.  I would be hesitant to heat treat the wedge unless the struck end were to be kept soft or maybe a bit softer than blue.  I was thinking that applying a small bit of lubricant on the contact surfaces between the wedge and feathers would keep the wear to a minimum with using only mild steel for all the pieces.

[Frosty]

I don't think lubricating wedges and feathers(?) would help much if any.  Might make it worse even but I've never split stone so my opinion is speculative. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[anvil]

I've made and used feathers and wedges. Mild steel is fine. If you use them enough that you need to dress them,,, lo9l, you are really working! Coil spring works well and is cheap. About the best reason I can think of for heat treating them is it will give you experience heat treating. Do a little research into some of the old ~1900 blacksmithing books that were used as text in schools. They have some great info on what colors you should run for specific applications. "Plane and Ornamental Forging" by Ernst Schwarzkopf is readily available and can be found via google. Never used any lube, so I can't answer that

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning,

I made a bunch of feathers and wedges, to break up large boulders that fell on a section of railway. There was no road access, so everything had to fit on small rail cars. We used compressed air Drill to drill the holes and set the feathers and wedges by hand. It worked well. The rock will split were it has the weakest grain, we just try to control where.

The wood plugs (similar to feathers and wedges) that were used in our part of the world, were Cedar. They would hand punch a line of holes, fill them with water and drive Cedar plugs in the holes. The Cedar would wick up the water and expand in the hole, come back in a week and the rock is split.

Neil

[ThomasPowers]

If you could drill holes with compressed air, Mr. Alfred Nobel has some handy stuff to make big rocks smaller...

[George N. M.]

Just for those folk who don't have a mining or drilling background I will point out that you drill holes with a compressed air driven hammer drill, not compressed air by itself.

Prior to the invention of air compressors or in places without access to compressed air holes were drilled with a steel drill and a hand hammer e.g. "John Henry, The steel drivin' man."  Mining schools still have competitions for hand drilling holes in rock.  I've done it an it is VERY hard work.

:By hammer and hand (and Giant Powder*) all arts do stand."

*Giant Powder was an early brand name for dynamite in the US.

[Charles R. Stevens]

On a mine tour in Arizona, I was told if you missed the stem of the star drill and hit your partners hand it was your turn to hold the drill and his to swing the hammer! 
law many times I have hit my left hand missing a chisel knocking out rivets, I would have to pass! 

[George N. M.]

"John Henry said to his shaker (the guy who held and rotated the drill and cleaned the hole), "Now, boy, ya' better pray.  "Cause if I miss with this 9 pound hammer tomorrow's going to be you buryin' day."

[Frosty]

He was called the shaker because his job was to give the drill steel a shake after every blow to keep cuttings loose in the hole, he turned it when he felt it want to stay in the cut grooves. If the bit bottomed out, (the cutting edges and space between matching the rock) it wouldn't advance so the shaker turned the steel a little to break new rock. Different shakers turned the steel on a different blow count, some were secretive about it and fights started if they thought someone was counting their turns.

This came up a few years ago and a link to some really interesting article was posted, it was quite the rabbit hole. John Henry's favorite shaker was named in the work song (chanty) though I don't think it made it to the published version. The drill songs were sung by the drill crews to keep rhythm and help minimize fatigue.

Frosty The Lucky.

[mcostello]

So this means that a Guy with a very sore hand was supposed to get a turn at striking. Pain maybe a deterrent, but I think it would not help accuracy.

[ThomasPowers]

*Exactly*  and so the inducement for the original hammer wielder to *NOT* *MISS*!

George, you skipped over the steam drill going from hand drilled to compressed air.  Must have been "nice"  with an enclosed space and a steam drill running.

[George N. M.]

And the early compressed air drills did not use water as a coolant and to carry away the cuttings.  Basically they were silicosis (aka "miners' consumption") machines.

Thomas, yes, John Henery was competing with a steam drill.  "John Henry drilled 14 feet, the steam drill only drilled 9."

In the '60s there was a Chad Mitchell Trio (IIRC) version with John Henry, a thinkin' man, competing against a computer.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[anvil]

What a memory from the past! I remember that song and played it on my guitar!

[arkie]

On 8/21/2022 at 12:08 PM, anvil said:

Coil spring works well and is cheap.

anvil, thanks for the suggestion of coil spring!  I've got plenty of that.  It's plenty hard without any heat treatment. 

[anvil]

 

[jlpservicesinc]

Both Feathers and wedges were made from soft steel..    The feathers could be a softer steel or wrought iron. 

the feathers  are very easy to make with a swage out of round stock.    The Wedges were made from 1/2" square..  Most the holes drilled here were 3/4" and most of these that I can into were drilled by hand. 

You don't want them hard.. If they are hard they have a tendency to slip or spit out of the hole..   Having the wedges and feathers made from 2 different types of materials helps with this. 

[arkie]

Good info, Jen, thanks.  Glad you pointed out that the wedges need to be square stock.....DUH ME!!