I’m Goin’ Home, I’m Smokin’ My Last Cigarette
Will we overcome these obstacles to see an even broader selection of affordable, quality product? Can this be done in a way that is ecologically sound and economically just to the quarry worker, the slab producer, and the distributor? I for one would be satisfied with top-quality slabs in a smaller color pallet if it meant a more planet- and person-friendly product.
Surely there’s a point of diminishing return for the choices we provide the Ms. Joneses of our customer ranks, even though she may not agree. When do all of the gold-colored exotics simply start to look the same?
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Stoneworking technology increased at an amazing pace; we continue to embrace the technology of countertops more than ever. Even in these times, companies are investing in digital templating, jet-saws, and CNCs.
The flip side to these advances? The digital divide gets wider every year between those who embrace the technology and those who don’t.
My opinion on this is crystal-clear – technology has made our industry, and our product, better. The idea of the “Old-World craftsman” simply doesn’t fit with modern countertop production. A countertop can be measured and designed more accurately with digital templating, cut more efficiently with a saw-jet, and profiled more precisely with a CNC.
The only area where a human touch continues to be superior is in the final steps of polishing. Given the advances we’ve seen with other production aspects, I’m confident the technology will be introduced in the near future that solves this issue.
There’s no doubt that this technology decreases the number of people needed to produce countertops, but I’m not convinced it reduces the number of good jobs in the industry. Countertops still need to be sold, measured, and installed – all quality, if stressful, ways to make a living.
Go into a dusty hell hole of a manual dry shop, and then visit an automated wet shop … and tell me which one has the good jobs. If technology helps our product improve and gain market share, we can be moving forward in the digital age and creating a larger (and healthier) stone-industry workforce.
What have we learned from the past 15 years of stone work? Sadly, that an ill-informed consumer will accept a clearly inferior product because they don’t know any better.
How many thousands of butchered-up kitchens have we walked through that were accepted by the customer because they couldn’t tell a good countertop from a bad one? Once educated, either by themselves or the industry, a consumer is more-likely to pay more for a superior product. The lobbying arm of the stone industry would be wise to see that their real purpose should be to educate consumers on how to judge a good product, and not to run cover for the marginally acceptable producers.
We’ve also learned that we, as an industry, get a kick out of educating each other. Hats off to the Stone Fabricators Alliance for all of their work toward creating a more-professional and -productive industry. Also to guys like Kevin Padden and Cameron DeMille for helping to train the next generation of stone craftsmen. I’m hopeful that my goofy stories and wordy explanations have also contributed to the body of knowledge moving the industry forward.