Cutting/Sawing Granite, Cheap Discount Granite Kitchen Worktops UK

Cutting/Sawing Granite

Granite Worktops / Cutting & Sawing Granite

Cutting of granite blocks into slabs was once a process which involved a lot of physical work which took many months, using an iron saw with sand and water as an abrasive. When the chilled iron shot (small pellets of iron) was invented not to mention with the use of steel saws, the cutting time was a matter of only a few days. The dressing process gave a quite smooth surface which could then be polished.

During the 1960s, endless wire loop saws replaced the old frame saws and this is how diamond tipped circular saws have also been in use for many years because it ensures any surface has a nice smoothness which does not need another polishing before dressing.

The rough blocks which come to the stone yard from the quarry have sizes and shapes which lack regularity and therefore they are analysed to decide upon the best and safest way to cut them into slab form in order to prevent accidentally ruining it.

After the first inspection is over, the block is sawed into slab form using a large circular diamond-tipped blades, wire or monoblade saws which cut one slab at a time or by a frame saw with many blades that cut each block – which vary according to its size – in just one operation into a number of slabs.

This operation enables the thickness of the block to be suitable for the finished stone it is being cut for, and this is the unique way in which when opening the block one can see its internal defects. It is essential to bear in mind that stone is a natural product and that colour and figuring may also differ depending on the block or from block to block and the result is that some slabs will not be accepted.

A subsequent phase – secondary sawing – basically means cutting the slabs into dimensioned ashlars. The machines used are generally computerised bridge saws with circular diamond blades with different diameters: 600-1200mm and can also have tilting heads to offer angled cuts.

The ashlars which results from it is coded ready for palleting or sent to the mason workshop for additional masonry work such as broaching, droving or stugging to take place. In the second of these options slabs can also be cut to sizes and shapes that can be moulded using your hand or, very common today, using lathes profiling and water jetting machines (these machines are basically controlled by computers).

The stone that goes through the lathes, profiling and water jetting machines can either be taken back to the secondary saws to be jointed or moved to the banker area for the masons to perform additional work such as returning moulding, sunk mouldings or to cut out moulded brackets in a cornice course. When the tasks performed for every stone is over, the quality of it has to be analysed and see if there are any flaws before it gets polished, palleted and ‘shrink-wrapped’ ready for delivery to site.

The banker area is the place in which time-served masons and apprentices using traditional tools such as mells (mallets), teeth tools, chisels, etc. take care of tasks that cannot be performed by machines.

These days most of their chisels have tungsten which replaced the steel tips and – instead of having a blacksmith do all the work as in older days – they are sharpened using grinding wheels. The masons can today also use compressed air tools and angle grinders together with drilling and coring machines.