With mallet head. Length 200 mm.
Sculpting tools made of carbide or with carbide inserts are particularly suitable for working on hard types of stone. Carbide tools need to be sharpened less frequently during work because the material is so strong that there is less abrasion than with tools made of forged steel. The carbide cutting edge therefore has a longer service life. However, if carbide chisels are ground to a very sharp point or thinly, careful working is required as carbide is a brittle material due to its hardness and can easily break when ground thinly. Levering movements during hammering can also lead to breakage or loosen the carbide pin from the steel casing.
The rule of thumb for hard stone is: the harder the stone, the blunter the cutting angle of the chisel should be. With hard stone such as granite, the chisel is placed at almost a right angle and the stone is virtually pulverised. The chisel therefore has a very blunt cutting edge. For crystalline stone such as hard marble, a more pointed tool with a sharper cutting edge is required. The chisel is set flat so that the stone can chip off without damaging the underlying crystalline structure.
Carbide chisels can also be used for processing sandstone. As sandstone is highly abrasive, forged steel chisels can wear relatively quickly. Carbide cutting edges also have a longer service life here due to their hardness. However, it must be taken into account that the carbide pins are usually set in steel.
As with crystalline stone, pointed chisels tend to be used for working sandstone: The aim with this type of stone is to destroy the bond between the sand particles when striking, for which a pointed tool is better suited than a blunt one. However, the same applies here: for very hard sandstone, use a less pointed chisel that is less likely to break.
