So today I watched a guy unclog road drains, a woman cut her grass with a scythe and now a guy splitting granite with a hammer.. surprisingly all rather satisfying.Lovely to see this still being done. In a "former life" I used to split large lumps of stone using the same method (called Plug and Feathers here in the UK). Something that I was a little surprised to see here was that the quarry block was apparently dumped flat on the ground - I always liked to put a hefty skid directly under the fracture line, which helped direct the split and also as the fracture starts to open, the weight of the stone works with you, not against. Obviously you also need to add a couple of smaller skids either side, as well, as you don't want a couple of tons of stone rolling over onto you! It also meant that after the stone was split, you don't have the issue of separating the two halves, but can get slings around them more easily. Thanks for posting this, it brought back a lot of memories!