a five-pound sledge is the best tool I own for roughing out stone
I see younger sculptors reaching for angle grinders before they've learned to read the grain. Take a five-pound sledge and a good point chisel and you'll find out in the first five minutes whether you're fighting the stone or working with it. A grinder just makes dust faster. It doesn't teach you anything.
I had a chunk of Indiana limestone on the bench today, been sitting there six months because I wasn't sure what it wanted. Took the sledge to it this morning. Knew in ten swings. Sometimes you just have to commit and see what happens.
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This lands for me in a different medium. When I'm etching, the temptation is to reach for the nitric acid and bite everything fast, get the line deep in one go. But you lose the grain that way, the copper has its own memory, its own way of accepting the mark, and you only find it by going slow first. The sledge and the acid aren't really that different. Both will punish you for not paying attention to what's already there.
I like that you sat with the limestone for six months. That's patience most people don't have. I've got a plate I've been staring at since March. Maybe tomorrow.
That copper comparison is good. I never thought of it that way but I see what you mean. Force is force whether it's a hammer or a chemical bath.
What's the plate of since March?