Hot dog!!!! It appears Mr. Chickadee is starting another series on building a structure from foundation to finish. You’re the absolute best at these videos Mr. Chickadee. Can’t wait for the next videos showing the progress of the build.
I cannot properly express how much I find this such a great stress reliever, to listen to nature and you working while I slave away at my 9-5. You are living the dream! Thanks Mr Chickadee!
Everything always seems so serene when you work. The sounds of nature combined with the sounds of simple hand tools is so relaxing. It is always a pleasure to watch and learn.
I find this so interesting. My brother was a bricklayer and he really enjoyed working with real stone. So much construction today is done with cultured stone as its roughly half the cost up here. So those few jobs he got that involved real stone were special, and they turned out beautiful. It caused me to admire what our ancestors achieved even more since they had none of our modern tools or machinery. I learn so much watching you that I really appreciate it when you post a new video. Your skill, methods, patience and the resulting projects are amazing.
Great to see another episode! Every time I see a chickadee at my bird feeder, I think of you! Feathers and wedges are fun, but take a lot of patient work. First time I have seen them used on 2 sides of a cube-shaped rock. Stone weighs 4K-5K per cubic yard, so those are real groaners!
I will argue that the side wedges are probably not necessary but certainly don’t hurt anything by being there. Especially with such a narrow span to break open. Always enjoy your videos sir! Thank you!
My sister grew up to be a very fine cook but cooks are made and their early attempts are not always successful. Dinner one night when I was a lad was a savory beef stew over split biscuits. My sister Pat made the biscuits which were handsome and browned just right - but hard as that stone you were working. I remember my dad attempting to split one trying to make it look effortless but it was clear his table knife was a frail tool for the job. He could have better have used your chisel and wedges - which fetched this recollection.. Pat tried to hold it in and I, cruel brother, for once kept my mouth shut as dad hewed away at his flint buscuit. The storm broke, Pat ran sobbing to her room with Mom following. Dad and I looked at each other stifling our giggles. Ever after, post holes, knotty firewood rounds, anything immune to cutting tools were "like Pat's biscuits" which was unfair because 60 years of subsequent biscuits were delectable and soft. Every family has events that become legend but this one had to be passed on out of Pat's hearing or face a sinkful of dirty dishes. Thank you, Josh, for bringing that to mind. Those aren't mere foundation piers; they rival the Sarsen Stones of Stonehenge. Just out of curiosity, what are you building? Two storeys, three? A water tower? How'd you get them home? In my younger days, I'd have dribbled them two at a time like so many basketballs but I suppose the puny modern generation has to employ more laborious methods.
Great story, I just cant help thinking, I can only imagine she neglected the baking powder? I used to make ships bisquits like that, basically just cracker recipe without any rising agent, good for breaking out teeth, but great travel food. The reality of these stones delivery is less than epic. I simply paid a neighbor who does "dirt work" to haul them and dump at my place. Spent way more in the hauling fee than the rock...they have laid in a roadside hollow for 30+ years, one had a small tree growing atop it. The old man was happy to get rid of them, for a tiny fee.
I would probably have a stroke doing this but modern Tom Sawyer here makes me want to take a whack at those chisels like Hercules? Lol Truly a master craftsperson.
This never gets old. Fantastic stone work Josh, Thanks for sharing with us. Your work is really great to watch. Stay safe and keep up the fun you all have. Fred.
Dear Mr. Chickadee. 👍👌👏 Oh WOW! Nice, nice, nice, a new video and a new building in progress (and that means more of those fantastic videos coming)! Very well done again and as always (video and work). Of course I'm eagerly looking forward to watch the next part. Thanks a lot for making teaching explaining recording editing uploading and sharing. Best regards luck and health to all of you.
Fascinating. I've seen stone split using star drills (which make round holes) and wedges with drifts before, but this method of using a chisel to make slit-shaped holes and then using only wedges is a new one on me. I only wish there were subtitles or a narrative to give a little more information.
Always a pleasure to watch a skilled craftsmen at his craft…or should I say multi-crafted…this man cannot do no wrong…he is a master at whatever he does…thank you 😎
Good morning, Mr. Chickadee ! Always a pleasure to see you. There must be great satisfaction in seeing the beginning fissure in the rock. The sound that tells you that you can lay your hammer down very soon. Very much looking forward to your project. Best regards to you and your family.
These stone-splitting vids are breathtaking. If I didn’t like the sound of hammer on wedges so much I certainly would recommend “Time is on my Side” from the Stones for this one, just because it fit’s so well. But nit in your vids Josh. They’re extra beautiful because of the sound of handtools. Great work once again! Curious what this one turns out to become…
There is something very recognizable about the stone in the Appalachian mountains. Never been to this channel. Don't know who you are. I've lived on the west coast for more than 15 years. Those are stones from the Appalachian mountains if I ever did see them.
You make that look so easy. Most of the quarries here in Washington state produce granite or basalt. There is one quarry that produces sandstone (used to build the state capitol building). I recently built a stone retaining wall using local granite from the Columbia Granite Quarry in Ranier. Heavy stuff! I believe it is 160 lbs/ cubic ft. I tried both feathers/wedges and wedges only. Mixed results. Would have loved to get the sandstone but the quarry not in operation. I still enjoyed the work and the challenge.
I find your method of splitting stone interesting. I've never tried using just wedges. That's the old way before the 1840s when they started using star drills, "feathers" and "wedges."
Cool, good video! This is just like the pyramids in Egypt, we know where the stone was harvested and we know where it ended up, but the mystery is how it was moved into place.
Bạn nên làm nhiều video về chặt cây,xẻ gỗ và chế tát công cụ làm mộc. Theo tôi nghĩ kênh của bạn sẽ phát triển hơn.Đó là ý kiến riêng của mình. Chúc sức khỏe bình an.
A fun method to experiment with is splitting using wood. You make a few holes along the split line, then pound in some bone dry softwood dowels (they should be as tight fitting as possible). Then soak them to make the wood expand, it takes 1-2 days but the wood will expand enough to split the rock. The Egyptians used this method for quarrying, but it works on smaller scales too. Not as fast as this method on smaller rocks, but it's certainly an interesting experiment.
Great work...and before anyone says "see the Egyptians could have built the pyramids like this" remember that they were working with granite and supposedly only had copper tools. They also still had to move the 100+ tonne blocks sometimes miles from the quarry. They also did it with tolerances as tight as 1/1000th of an inch and surfaces finished so smooth they still reflect like mirrors many thousands of years later
Look at Mike Haduck's videos on how the Egyptians did it. Easier than you think even with hard stone. The pyramid blocks were mostly rough fill and the final stones on the slope were finished in place. You can still see unfinished blocks in the process of being shaped to slope. He shows you.
It's been a while since I saw one of your videos. I am still in awe over how you work. I do have a question. As you were tapping the wedges into the stone I seemed to hear a high pitch hit and every once in a while more of a thump sound. Is this due to the density of the stone area you are going through? Finally I want to wish you, your Dad, your family and friends continued health and happiness. May God continue to watch over all of you.
Very cool. We have several large granite stones at our place from an old barn foundation, perhaps I’ll follow your technique. Did you forge those tools? Any specific steel type? It seems like they are all fully hardened.
Yes, home forged from old cold chisel, simple high carbon steel, water quenched and tempered to leave a hard edge and softer higher up. The wedges are just medium carbon steel, heat treated to be hard at the tip only not struck end
