maillet fendeur

CONT: Watrin, dans ses «Ardoisières des Ardennes», nous décrit [...] le travail: «L'ouvrier se sert d'un ciseau en fer [...] Il dresse le morceau de pierre [...] puis il place le ciseau [...] au milieu de l'épaisseur et, à l'aide d'un maillet en bois, il frappe sur le ciseau à petits coups, de façon à amorcer la fente.»
CONT: [Légende] Monsieur Émile Boquet, fendeur aux Ardoisières de Rimogne (Ardennes). Dans ses mains le maillet fendeur et le ciseau allongé.

CONT: The making of slates is still performed by hand using chisel and mallet. Big slabs are split into separate slates, the thickness of which varies with the size required and the quality of the rock.
CONT: Slate can be split into parallel-sided sheets .... The large quarried blocks are divided into slabs weighing up to one or one and a half tons. These are divided into smaller blocks about three inches thick and approximately of the required size; these in turn are split by hammer and broad chisel into the desired number of slates, varying in thickness from one-sixth to one-third of an inch, and trimmed to a rectangular shape.
OBS: sledge: Sledgehammer.