Stone Block Cutting Course

Lesson 1 • Industry Terminology and Standards

Introduces trade vocabulary, measurement systems, and quality grading terms. Ensures students communicate accurately with suppliers and clients.

Lesson 2 • Workplace Roles and Workflow

Maps the production chain from quarry to finished cut block. Students understand their role and dependencies within a professional operation.

Lesson 3 • Regulatory and Environmental Context

Outlines dust, noise, and waste regulations governing stone cutting operations. Frames compliance as a professional baseline, not an optional concern.

Lesson 1 • Emergency Response Procedures

Prepares students to act correctly during cuts, fires, and chemical spills. Reinforces that rapid, correct response limits injury severity.

Lesson 2 • Manual Handling and Ergonomics

Teaches safe lifting, carrying, and positioning of heavy stone blocks. Reduces musculoskeletal injury risk throughout daily operations.

Lesson 3 • Machine and Tool Safety Rules

Establishes lockout/tagout, blade guarding, and safe operating procedures for all cutting equipment. Prevents mechanical injuries before hands-on training begins.

Lesson 4 • Silica Dust Hazard Management

Addresses the primary occupational health risk in stone cutting through engineering and administrative controls. Builds habits that prevent long-term lung disease.

Lesson 1 • Wire Saws and Gang Saws

Covers large-format cutting machines used for primary block breakdown. Students understand feed rates, wire tension, and abrasive slurry management.

Lesson 2 • Hand Tools for Stone Cutting

Covers chisels, pitching tools, feathers and wedges, and hand saws. Students learn correct grip, striking technique, and tool care.

Lesson 3 • Tool Inspection and Preventive Maintenance

Establishes daily and periodic inspection routines for all equipment. Prevents unplanned downtime and ensures cutting accuracy is maintained.

Lesson 4 • Bridge Saws and Stationary Machines

Explains the components, controls, and capacities of bridge saws and table saws. Students learn to configure machines for standard block cuts.

Lesson 1 • Marking Out Techniques

Demonstrates scribing, chalk lining, and template transfer on stone surfaces. Accurate marking is the direct precursor to accurate cutting.

Lesson 2 • Measuring Instruments and Their Use

Covers steel rules, calipers, squares, and levels used in stone layout. Students calibrate and use each instrument to the required precision.

Lesson 3 • Squareness and Reference Face Selection

Explains how to identify and dress a reference face before laying out remaining cuts. Ensures all subsequent dimensions originate from a true surface.

Lesson 4 • Reading and Interpreting Drawings

Teaches orthographic projection, scale reading, and dimension extraction from shop drawings. Accurate drawing interpretation prevents costly cutting errors.

Lesson 1 • Straight Cuts with Power Saws

Teaches fence-guided and freehand straight cuts on bridge and table saws. Correct feed rate and blade selection are emphasised for each stone type.

Lesson 2 • Angled and Mitered Cuts

Introduces tilting-head and angled-fence setups for producing bevels and miters. Students practise setting and verifying angles before committing to cuts.

Lesson 3 • Cutting Soft and Fragile Stones

Covers the risks of chipping, spalling, and cracking when cutting limestone, sandstone, and travertine. Students apply support and speed adjustments to protect fragile material.

Lesson 4 • Splitting and cleaving stone

Covers natural cleavage exploitation using wedges, plugs, and feathers. Students learn to read grain direction to achieve clean splits with minimal waste.

Lesson 1 • Edge profiling and detailing

Introduces router bits and profile wheels for producing bullnose, ogee, and chamfer edges. Students match profiles to specifications and achieve consistent results.

Lesson 2 • CNC machine operation basics

Introduces CNC stone cutting centres, toolpath concepts, and basic program execution. Students run pre-written programmes and monitor machine performance.

Lesson 3 • Multi-piece and modular cutting

Addresses cutting matched sets, repeating modules, and book-matched slabs. Students use stop blocks and jigs to maintain consistency across multiple pieces.

Lesson 4 • Curved and radius cuts

Teaches template-guided and freehand curved cuts using angle grinders and CNC routers. Students produce smooth curves within specified radius tolerances.

Lesson 1 • Defect identification and repair

Trains students to identify chips, cracks, staining, and surface voids in cut stone. Repair methods including filling and colour-matching are demonstrated.

Lesson 2 • Quality inspection and documentation

Establishes inspection criteria, sampling methods, and non-conformance reporting. Students complete inspection records that meet professional trade standards.

Lesson 3 • Grinding and honing processes

Covers progressive grit grinding to remove saw marks and achieve a honed surface. Students select abrasive sequences appropriate to each stone type.

Lesson 4 • Textured and specialty finishes

Introduces flamed, bush-hammered, sandblasted, and sawn finishes for architectural applications. Students produce each finish and identify appropriate use cases.

Lesson 1 • Job planning and cut sheet preparation

Teaches translating client orders into cut sheets with dimensions, quantities, and sequences. Accurate cut sheets reduce errors and rework on the shop floor.

Lesson 2 • Nesting and material yield optimisation

Introduces manual and software-assisted nesting to maximise usable stone from each block. Students calculate yield percentages and compare nesting strategies.

Lesson 3 • Offcut management and reuse

Covers cataloguing, storing, and repurposing offcuts to reduce material cost. Students identify offcut applications and maintain an organised offcut inventory.

Lesson 4 • Continuous improvement in cutting operations

Applies root cause analysis and corrective action to recurring cutting problems. Students propose and test process improvements using production data.