I believe such techniques go back to ~Ancient Egypt. As I understand it, they’d use basically the same approach as us moderns, i.e. a succession of finer abrasives. Results seem confirmed in most searches & articles I see, for example:
You know, what immediately flashed in my mind when I read your comment were the ancient pyramids. We moderns know them as sort of a pile of (enormous) crumbling bricks, but originally they were covered by a smooth, polished layer that blazed in the sun. So yeah– time, elbow grease, and a set of specialised materials to achieve that effect.
I’ve totally forgotten how uniform flatness was achieved, though. Any insight on that?
“Perfect, machine-flat surfaces do not exist in nature…”
Oh shit, I believe he’s immediately busted on that, as with beehives and various natural, geometric and crystalline rock formations! But yeah, we get the point. (thanks for the video)
the egyptians sold/ plundered much of the valuable fascia and the capstones themselves.
RetroFed
PugJesus
Share on Mastodon
Share on Reddit
Share on WhatsApp
Curious what method and tools they used to achieve mirror finish back then. Anyone got any details?
I believe such techniques go back to ~Ancient Egypt. As I understand it, they’d use basically the same approach as us moderns, i.e. a succession of finer abrasives. Results seem confirmed in most searches & articles I see, for example:
https://www.quora.com/How-were-ancient-Egyptians-able-to-cut-and-polish-granite
Time and elbow grease. There was another one about how the ancients achieved the rematkable degree of flatness. Good watching thanks.
You know, what immediately flashed in my mind when I read your comment were the ancient pyramids. We moderns know them as sort of a pile of (enormous) crumbling bricks, but originally they were covered by a smooth, polished layer that blazed in the sun. So yeah– time, elbow grease, and a set of specialised materials to achieve that effect.
I’ve totally forgotten how uniform flatness was achieved, though. Any insight on that?
Cant find the post, but this is the video submitted earlier:
https://youtu.be/vhv8fAqN1cw
I recall the pyramid thing, and read the egyptians sold/ plundered much of the valuable fascia and the capstones themselves.
Oh shit, I believe he’s immediately busted on that, as with beehives and various natural, geometric and crystalline rock formations! But yeah, we get the point. (thanks for the video)
Interesting…
You underestimate how flat machine-flat is. It’s certainly not archived in nature
We’re talking micron precision across a large surface
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/202115