How To Cut And Polish Granite
By: Paul Cris

The Greeks were the first to use stones to make homes. The procedure of acquiring natural stone has not changed much since then. In modern days too big blocks of stone are cut from the mines and then sold in thin pieces or slabs. After buying these slabs, they are polished and shaped according to usage. For the granite stone too this process is followed.

Over the years the main method has remained the same but to perform the steps the type of machineries used has changed drastically. Science has transformed the old machines into much more effective and time saving types. Three basic machines are used in granite fabrication. These are saws, polishers and routers.

Saws
Block saw or gang saw cuts the stone blocks into slabs. Nowadays diamond wire saw is used for cutting. The machine has a wire and on the wire a commercial diamond is fixed. Diamond itself is the hardest stone. So it makes the job much quicker. Then a bridge saw is used to give the slabs proper size.

Polishers
Polishers are used to make the surface of the granite smooth. Polishers make the surface of the granite mirror like. An abrasive material is attached with the rotating pads of the polisher. The surface of the material varies according to purpose. The smoothness of the polishing increases with the fineness of the abrasive material.

Routers
Routers are used to create designs on the slab surface. There are various edges that are used in the router to create different designs. Router has a spinning blade fixed with diamonds to cut and create the required designs.