Gang Saws

How in the heck do they cut something this hard? Actually, there are a number of ways. But, these pictures show the traditional machinery in use. Picture, in the old lumberjack pictures, one guy on either side of a tree with the multi-toothed saw blade with a handle on each end. Back and forth and back and forth. That is pretty much how it is done.



This is the flywheel portion of the driving mechanism. It is huge. Small factories may have one. Large factories may run 6 or 8 continually.



This is the view from the flywheel down the steel girder toward the actual cutting area. The blades [on the end of this girder] are made from spring steel and look just like a pruning blade for wood. The difference is these blades are diamond encrusted. They also continuously pour a slurry that looks like gray oatmeal on top of the blades as they slowly progress through the stone. The slurry contains abrasive agents to aid in the progress.



This is the back side of the saw. This is where the raw blocks are loaded and the newly cut slabs are extracted.



These are the carts that transport the blocks from the yard to the rear of the saws. This picture is from Thor Granitos in Rio. A huge outfit.

Anytime you are in a cutting factory, there is a constant din of low grade noise. It sounds like low grade sandpaper slowly moving back and forth across a piece of wood. The factory people tell me you get used to it, but I didn't. They're probably correct, eventually.