Whatever machine you use, it’s the tools that can make all the difference.

Diamond tools for working stone are like computers – it is hard now to imagine life without them. But, like computers, their development has been rapid, with significant improvements in performance and just as significant falls in price.

The only drawback to diamond tools (and possibly computers) is their carbon footprint. Most diamond tooling uses man-made diamonds and it takes a lot of energy to provide the heat and pressure necessary to turn carbon into diamonds.

Of course, carbon footprints are not as clear cut as they might appear. An electric car looks greener than a car driven by fossil fuels, but look in a bit more detail and the difference starts diminishing.

It is the same with diamond tools. Take into account how efficiently they work, saving machining time, and the still relatively small amount of encapsulated carbon contained in the diamonds they contain starts to be offset by the reduction in power used in processing.  

Nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems and certainly without the developments in diamond tooling the granite worktop market and its subsequent expansion into quartz and lately sintered and ceramic products, would not have happened.

Diamond tools made possible the rapid expansion of a market for affordable domestic stonework. Having natural and engineered stone in their homes has hugely increased the public awareness of natural stone and has played a significant part in the expansion of the whole stone sector and, of course, natural stone is an essentially low carbon product compared with many man-made hard surfaces.