Mechanical cutting of weak and weathered rocks
Explosive rock cutting in (medium to hard) rocks, often done in open areas and away from buildings and cities
Chemical rock cutting, a precise method of rock cutting in cities and near buildings
Drilling and blasting currently use many types of explosives with different compositions and performance characteristics.
High-velocity explosives are used for relatively hard rocks to break them up and fracture them, while low-velocity explosives are used for softer rocks to generate greater gas pressure and a stronger vibrational effect. For example, an early 20th-century blasting manual compared the effects of black powder to the wedge effect and dynamite to the hammer effect.
