Anyone successfully cut or scored limestone?

I am circling building a retaining wall and patio with limestone flats. I have a tractor and wagon and stupidity enough to go to a nearby quarry and pick up lime rock, but wondered if the odd shaped pieces could by shaped with other than a chipping hammer. Would a cut off saw with a special blade be useful?

google "feather and wedges".

(quoted from post at 19:40:13 08/12/11) I am circling building a retaining wall and patio with limestone flats. I have a tractor and wagon and stupidity enough to go to a nearby quarry and pick up lime rock, but wondered if the odd shaped pieces could by shaped with other than a chipping hammer. Would a cut off saw with a special blade be useful?

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Sure, you can use a saw with a diamond blade to cut them (always cut wet if you can). One problem is, if you can see the cut end, it looks out of place. You can cut it long and use a chisel to rough the end up and make it look more natural though. Its just doing it that way is kinda doing it twice.

For a decient sized job, it would end up easier to just rent or buy a stone splitter. If you buy a used one, you wont be using it enough to make it worth less when you are done with the job so you could re-sell it for what you bought it for. You may be able to long term rent a splitter from a mason contractor (its not like they will be using it on jobs in this economy). Tool rental places should also have a splitter but with per day charges and a job you may not be wanting to pound out in a weekend, the rental fees add up quickly.

As mentioned, wedges will work but that also brings up a few other issues. First is you will need a good hammer drill to make a bunch of holes to put the wedges in. Second, when done, you will have a nice split edge with a bunch of half holes showing from the hammer drill. Not a problem if that edge is covered but if that edge is covered, may as well just cut them with a saw.

There are a lot of differences in the texture and structure of limestone. Bedford stone, quarried around Bedford, IN was used to build a lot of houses in this area. It forms in layers or slabs and I've seen lots of pictures where its cut with a wet saw.

We have several different types here. Most of our stone saws readily. Some is too brittle and crumbles out in hunks. The other type, referred to locally as blue limestone just about cant be cut, chipped, or chiseled.

Well heck yes lime stone can be cut and done almost any thing with but the cost for the equipment is another story. Say about 45 years ago I helped build a fire place with cut lime stone. Looked good but cost a lot of $$ in KS Winfield to be exact last I knew the home is still there and the fire place is still working well but to cut stone well you need good tools and those tools are not cheap

Cheap hand circular saw and abrasive masonery blades, & a dust mask. Good luck, joe-

My B.I.L. helped me build a retaining wall a few years ago using "flagstone" from an abandoned quarry on the family farm. We did not cut any of the store for it; we just used the straight side of each piece for the "face". We covered the top with a grand"s worth of nicely cut flagstone from an active quarry. Neither of us had ever built a wall or a patio before!
We laid a patio and only cut one stone to make the last piece of the puzzle.
If you have to cut, I found that a diamond blade is much, much faster than a masonry wheel.
I have cut a few flagstones for a sidewalk and a couple of caps for chimneys. The last cap I made, is the one I used the diamond blade on and it cut like butter.
A stone mason of mine showed me how to get a real nice "rough cut" looking edge after cutting with a blade.
Put on a goo set of eye and face protection and heat the edge with an acetylene torch. Pieces will pop off and it will look like it was chipped with a hammer.
I found this work to be very satisfying.

Thats a thermal finish, I bought a bunch of blue stone done like that, for a high rise in NYC.