Polishing Granite Perfectly Flay By Hand
Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:49 am
Hey SFA
My name is Matt and I am a stonemason from Sydney Australia, I did my apprenticeship fabricating and installing kitchens, bathrooms and furniture by hand, about 9 years ago I switched to monumental work in cemeteries and I now only do conservation works.
I have recently bought my first home and there is a horrible "Fireplace" I use that term loosely because its just a shoddy timber mantle filled in with bricks and a hole for a flue from a cast iron heater/stove that sits in front. There hasn't been a stove there in a long time and the flue hole has been bricked up but I want to unblock it and install a new cast-iron heater.
I intend on carving a new granite mantle and surround, I haven't run any detailed mouldings by hand on granite or marble I have only done the standard bullnose, pencil round or chamfer so this will be a challenge but I am excited!
Whenever I polished in the past it was always with a 100mm diamond wet pad on a pneumatic machine but as I am sure you are all aware, when polishing a flat surface (not the edge) that way it is never perfectly flat and always has a slight wave in the polish when you look along it, if you know what I mean?
Do you have any advice on how I can get a really nice flat surface?
Please don't say use a CNC machine haha, I want to do this with hand tools and a standard 4 inch and 9 inch grinder.
Cheers
Matt
My name is Matt and I am a stonemason from Sydney Australia, I did my apprenticeship fabricating and installing kitchens, bathrooms and furniture by hand, about 9 years ago I switched to monumental work in cemeteries and I now only do conservation works.
I have recently bought my first home and there is a horrible "Fireplace" I use that term loosely because its just a shoddy timber mantle filled in with bricks and a hole for a flue from a cast iron heater/stove that sits in front. There hasn't been a stove there in a long time and the flue hole has been bricked up but I want to unblock it and install a new cast-iron heater.
I intend on carving a new granite mantle and surround, I haven't run any detailed mouldings by hand on granite or marble I have only done the standard bullnose, pencil round or chamfer so this will be a challenge but I am excited!
Whenever I polished in the past it was always with a 100mm diamond wet pad on a pneumatic machine but as I am sure you are all aware, when polishing a flat surface (not the edge) that way it is never perfectly flat and always has a slight wave in the polish when you look along it, if you know what I mean?
Do you have any advice on how I can get a really nice flat surface?
Please don't say use a CNC machine haha, I want to do this with hand tools and a standard 4 inch and 9 inch grinder.
Cheers
Matt