[AngryData]

Any kind of blade material and sand will cut through most rocks with time and effort. I seen an old stone cutting mechanism that used a small water wheel, metal blades, and they just kept dumping sand under the blade as it got pushed back and forth by the water wheel. The metal caught sand bits which ground through similiar to diamond cutting blades today, just with sand. That example had multiple blades but I imagine a single blade would be faster although requiring extra attention in replacing the sand. I don't think egyptions used water wheels but it can also by done by hand albeit with a lot of effort, but they did have a lot of spare time in agricultural off seasons.