From the very beginning of the Ancient Egypt history, stone has become the leading building material in this country. In fact, and not without reason, Egypt can be considered the stone processing art birthplace. We are talking not only about the many cyclopean structures erected in Egypt already in the days of the Old Kingdom – let’s not forget about the famous stone reliefs on the Egyptian tombs walls, carved with rare art in hard rocks and so perfectly polished that modern researchers still cannot agree in the opinion regarding the ancient Egyptians’ grinding technique, who were doing everything by hand undoubtedly.

The prevailing opinion is that the ancient Egyptian stone cutters used quartz sand for grinding, which makes it possible to process even fairly hard surfaces. For grinding the hardest rocks known to the ancient Egyptians – granite and basalt – the same stones crumb was used. Granite chips could also serve as a universal abrasive for rather rough work – for example, at the initial stages of the relief or statue surface processing.

In the modern world, the following stone processing methods are used:

* Cutting – Disc sawing – allows to cut even the hardest rocks with diamond cutters. String saw – can be diamond-strip or using shot, cast iron or steel. Rope (cable) saw – allows any density materials processing, cutting is carried out using an abrasive, it can be diamond-rope or using ropes reinforced with hard alloy washers.

* Chipping – Characterized by the presence of a relief surface resembling a rock, with a texture of parallel furrows, with relief bulges.

* Impact destruction – Used in the manufacture of hewn products. As a result, the surface dot texture is obtained