Types of Stone Carving Tools

Stone carving is an ancient art. Prehistoric craftsmen carved soft stone into figures of animals and religious icons. The ancient Egyptians used heavy mallets and copper files and chisels to carve masterpieces that still exist today.

Iron tools for stone carving were developed after 200 BCE and the basic design of those tools changed little until tools of high carbon steel and carbide or diamond surfaces were developed in the twentieth century.

Traditional stone carving tools come in three basic types. Percussion tools, such as hammers and mauls, are used for breaking the rough stone or for driving chisels into the stone. Hammers range in weight up to three pounds and have flat or wedge shaped heads.

Shaping Tools

Chisels are sharp iron tools used for gouging out stone or shaping the stone. Point tools are chisels with a hard point used for breaking away large pieces of stone. The sculptor will use a point tool to rough out the shape of the sculpture.

Lettering chisels are small tools that are used to carve lettering onto the stone. Fishtail chisels, claw chisels and toothed chisels are for shaping the detail of the carving. These tools require strength and skill to create sculpture.

Finishing Tools

After the shaping of the sculpture is complete the artist uses a variety of abrasion tools to polish and finish the sculpture. Iron rasps of different sizes are used to smooth away rough surfaces. Riffles are small rasps used to smooth finer details of the carving.

The next step is polishing the work with sand paper and Emery. Emery is a ground black stone which is very hard and abrasive. It leaves sculpture with a very smooth surface. Metal oxides are often used in the polishing process to make the sculpture have a glossy sheen.

Modern Tools

Technology changed and grew as new tools were invented for carving stone. Pneumatic drills and grinders became popular for shaping and finishing stone. Electric grinders with carbide and diamond discs made the work go more quickly.

Chisels and shaping tools are made of high carbon steel with carbide blades for more precise work. Large sculptures like the faces on Mount Rushmore are carved using oxy-acetylene torches to shatter the stone and impact drills to shape the stone. The heat of the torch causes the surface layers of the stone to expand rapidly and shatter. These tools allow artists to change mountains into art.