Hand-y Countertop Fabrication
THE STRAIGHT STOP
The third skill handworkers need is the ability to stop an edge detail on a straight corner seam or as it returns around a corner. I know some fabricators will no longer cut straight-corner seams with anything more than an eased edge, and mine frowns on it when I send him one. He’d much rather see a euro miter on an Inside Ninety.
But to completely deny that these seams exist is to discount the possibility that a straight seam may be the only way you can get a piece out of a slab or a job when limited to a certain number of slabs. The client may simply request a straight seam as well, especially on a raised snack bar. Because of this handworkers will need to have the skill to return an edge detail at the right spot on a piece and make it look good.
Not only does this require good grinder and pad skills; it also requires thinking ahead while laying out the point at which the edge detail return is created. A beveled edge turning a 90° corner at a straight seam will need to have the back intersection of the bevels clearly defined and in exactly the right spot. If this line is cut too far back or forward, the piece that returns may be in the wrong spot when the edges are put together, and could mess up overhangs.
Finishing a returned edge detail on a straight seam follows the same process as finishing an Inside Ninety. Use the grinder blade to cut close to the final surface you’re trying to achieve, but not all the way. The lower grit pads are the best for detail work. Always nest the two pieces together as you are doing the detail polishing as well.
The last thing an installer wants to find is a returned edge detail that still needs detail work. Odds are that unless he moved from the shop to the install truck, he’s not going to have the skills he needs to make a delicate bit of polishing look good.
Stopping an edge detail at the front rail of a cabinet on a return is a relatively simple procedure that is often overlooked, due to the lack of a paper trail following pieces through the shop or a piece that’s inadequately marked with crayon or ink. Nothing makes me madder than to see this kind of messed-up return, as an edge detail running past a wood rail stands out like a sore thumb.
Again, this kind of return requires a bit of thinking ahead during the layout process. If your handworkers are going to fade an edge detail to the start of the cabinet rail, that point needs to be clearly marked, and they need to work toward it with the grinders and pads. Cut an edge detail all the way to your line with the grinder blade, and by the time you have polished it out you’re past the mark where you wanted to stop. If you grind near the line and work toward it, by the time you reach the 400 grit you’ll stop perfectly. The pads above that will simply polish.
If your handworkers are going to cut the edge detail with a hard stop where the stone meets the cabinet rail, the same technique applies. Cut your stopping mark slightly in front of the end line and polish back to it.
NO FEAR OF FEATHERING
The fourth skill, and one that’s directly attributable to working with modern machinery, is the ability to feather together and clean up edge details. As good as a CNC may be, there are always those times when two edges are put together and don’t line up exactly.
The unfortunate part about this is that it happens just as easily with a simple bevel as it does with a triple pencil edge. Each one is going to have to be manipulated by hand to look good, requiring various levels of polishing skill to go with the edge detail.
The most-difficult aspect of feathering edges together is that, in most cases, the work isn’t limited to just the point where the pieces meet at the seam. If you feather an edge together in a short section, the piece will appear sometimes to have a gouge, or the edge that protruded looks like it changes direction at the seam.
Feathering edge details for good effect requires a handworker to work farther away from the seam, and gradually polish the edge toward the final point. This also means maintaining a very crisp top line on the edge detail, as line variations are very noticeable.
A feathered edge detail may also stand out as the process removes the CNC tooling lines. Depending on the size of the kitchen, or complexity of the edge detail, this may mean the entire project will have to be hand-polished so the edges match.
Learning these skills isn’t impossible, even if there’s not an old hand in the backshop from the good ol’ days of stoneworking. A number of companies and individuals offer training; you can find them every month in the Calendar section of Stone Business, or online. You can also follow the Stone Fabricator’s Alliance at its training sessions, online at www.stoneadvice.com or with its Stone Live! Presentations at StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas in Las Vegas in October.
As we move further into computerized stone cutting, the tendency will be to assume that machines will take over more and more of the tasks we now do manually. We may see a day when all the edge details line up perfectly ,and a machine can finish a piece no matter what the inside angle or where the edge detail stops – and be affordable.
Until then, successful companies will be those that train and maintain workers (dare I say ‘artisans’) who have the skills to create quality countertops.
Jason Nottestad, a 14-year stone-industry veteran, is co-owner of Wisconsin-based Midwest Template Services .