From quarry to lorry
Or how your granite gets from the ground to your kitchen.We have actually visited the quarries where we import the granite from and thought you might find this selction of pictures, taken during one of our visits, interesting and to let you know just how much work, effort and pride is involved in producing that shiny length of black top that you rest your kettle on.
Huge chunks of granite are carefully selected from the quarry by skilled operatives with many years experience of spotting a piece of quality stone
It might look primitive but when it comes to spllitting these huge rocks you need some serious brute force
A massive saw is used to slice the granite into worktop thick sections. You can see the shear scale of the equipment compared to the two operators standing nearby
Slicing the granite is a slow pain staking process. It can take up to 4 days to cut one of thes blocks into thin slabs
Once the whole block is cut through there is a final check before the individual slabs are crcked off the mother block
Dependent on the finish required the slabs of granite are either polished to a mirror finish as seen here
Or if a hand flamed finish is required this is done in a very traditional fashion with the operator employing his skill in knowing just how long to heat an area to cause the change in texture
All the workers take great pride in the product they produce with many a staff meeting to debate whether the granite is truly up to standard for shipping.
The old ways are the best. So its off on the camel ready to be shipped over to us to fit in your kitchen
And then the whole thing starts all over again with another trip back to the granite quarry to select another load for import to the UK.
