I cut stone for 20 years. To do what you want isn't hard if you know what your doing. It takes a while to get the hang of cutting stone with a hammer and stone cutting tools. Using a diamond blade and then knapping the stone would be the easiest. They make diamond blades that go in angle grinders and skill saws. The stone you are looking to split doesn't look super hard so the blades would last you a long time.

That old guy in the video must not have cut stone a lot or is a slow learner. To stand on the side like he was while splitting that boulder was a not good idea. He was lucky it didn't split when he was standing on the side and pin him.

That's pretty stuff. I've mentioned I'm a mason by trade. Years ago we built quite a few fireplaces out of stone called Split River Jacks and they very much resemble what you've posted in your pics. They came palleted and for the most part already split. We went through the tedious process of picking them up and putting them down until you found the particular stone needed to fill the void. I loved the look of the finished product but I hated the process. Put me right in a coma. You've been warned.

Did you ever suddenly notice you were bleeding from your hands or arms while facing stone? It used to happen fairly regularly. No pain but suddenly your bleeding. It was caused by small pieces of razor sharp shrapnel coming off the stone a it was struck. certain types of stone were worse than others.

Ambush, I have tons of that stuff here. I used some around a fire pit and after it was heated a few times it would split in half/quarter size on its own. The resulting splits left one side flat.

^^^^ I found split stones in an Amish rock pile and they had been burning on top of the pile and was wondering if that's why the stones are split...

I might throw a few in the fire pit and see if they crack....

careful,stuff will really fly when they pop in the fire pit.

In my previous lake home the split stone fireplace wall had many rocks that looked a lot like the one you show on the first page. I watched the guys turn and roll them looking for just the right spot then whack em and they broke incredibly well.
That being said in my yard here I have a good size fire pit with edge stones pretty close to bowling ball size or a touch bigger. I believe every rock has split from heat despite the many varieties.

Osky

If splitting them in fire works it’s almost like cheating though.
I like this look for my small wall. Just wondering even if the stones are split let’s say in half if I need support under my hoist as to carry some of the weight?