A historic helical steel-wire sawing system that cut marble by carrying water and abrasive sand through the cut, widely used in Carrara before diamond wire.
Filo elicoidale is a helical wire system historically used for cutting marble. A preserved Carrara example is formed from three steel wires twisted together; the helical grooves carried water and quartz sand through the cut, with the sand doing the abrasive work.
The system transformed marble extraction and workshop cutting before the widespread adoption of diamond wire.
Etymology
Italian: filo, “wire,” + elicoidale, “helical.”
Sculptor Notes
The wire itself was not the principal cutting abrasive: its geometry transported and pressed the abrasive slurry into the stone. Understanding that distinction explains why the system could cut large masses without diamond tooling.
References
https://levocidelmarmo.sns.it/lista_times.php; https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/DemoEthnoAnthropologicalHeritage/0900555902; https://www.visitacarrara.it/pagina4804_cave.html