Patent ID: 7146974

Claim:
A block splitting assembly for splitting a concrete workpiece having a top surface, a bottom surface, and opposite side surfaces to form at least one concrete block with a generally vertical, irregular front face, irregular edges around the front face and a rear face opposite the front face, comprising: a) a first block splitter configured and positioned to split the workpiece so as to result in the at least one concrete block with the generally vertical, irregular front face; b) first, second, third and fourth edge roughening members, the first member positioned to engage the top surface of the workpiece, the second member positioned to engage the bottom surface of the workpiece, the third member positioned to engage one of the side surfaces of the workpiece, and the fourth member positioned to engage the other side surface of the workpiece; c) each edge roughening member including a multiplicity of peaks that are positioned to engage the respective workpiece surface adjacent the front face of the resulting concrete block, the multiplicity of peaks including peaks distributed over a distance parallel to the front face of the resulting concrete block and peaks distributed over a distance away from the front face of the resulting concrete block toward the rear face of the resulting concrete block, the peaks being positioned to engage the respective surface of the workpiece and roughen an edge of the resulting concrete block along the generally vertical front face of the resulting concrete block during the splitting operation; and (i) for each of the third and fourth edge roughening members, (A) the multiplicity of peaks are joined together to form a plurality of alternating ridges and valleys; (B) the peaks have tips that lie generally on a plane that is at an acute angle relative to a vertical plane extending parallel to the front face of the resulting concrete block; (C) the ridges and valleys extend less than the entire height of the front face of the resulting block; and d) the multiplicity of peaks of each of the first, second, third and fourth edge roughening members being configured and positioned to engage the respective workpiece surfaces so that the majority of the length of each of the edges along the generally vertical front face of the resulting concrete block is roughened.