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.

As Nicola Waters says, when she joined her father, Bryan, in the family business that is now the Waters Group 28 years ago, it had about 20 diamond tools in stock. They were mostly 625mm saw blades, milling wheels and core drills used by the memorial trade.

These days Waters Group has about 4,000 diamond products of one kind or another in stock, most of them the ADI brand, although Waters also sells Arix aligned diamond bridge saw blades and Konig tools such as its particularly effective angle grinder blades thanks to diamond segments going down to the shoulder. Most diamond tools these days are used for making granite and engineered stone kitchen worktops.

There are so many tools in stock at Waters Group because it has products for the whole range of machinery used in the stone industry. And if it gets orders for an unusual profile, say, it will keep it in stock, even if it only sells that profile two or three times a year. “We know that our customers are relying on us,” says Nicola Waters, who is now the Managing Director of the Waters Group.

ADI is an Italian brand used by the stone industry for nearly 40 years. Being the company that it is, ADI was ahead of the game when Spanish stone company Cosentino was developing Dekton, its ultracompact sintered material. Consequently, when Dekton was launched, ADI already had tools that could be used to work it and other sintered and ceramic products that have been introduced to the stone sector in recent years.

“What I like about ADI is its on-going research and development,” says Nicola. “The tools achieve speed without compromising precision. And what I hear most from our customers is about the consistently high quality of the finish they produce.”

You can buy some of the tools directly from the Waters Group website (watersgroupltd.co.uk) and soon you will be able to buy even more of them from it, as it is currently under development in preparation for a relaunch later in the year – although Nicola says: “There’s no substitute for picking up the phone and talking to us. We have a lot of experience and whatever solution you are seeking we will usually be able to provide an answer.”

There are, of course, plenty of suppliers of diamond tools, including a daily dose from China bombarding the email inboxes of Western stone companies. As they have yet to establish their names, it is difficult to tell the good from the indifferent and the useless. Many of those who have been seduced by the low prices complain of the inconsistency – and there is nothing worse than having work ruined or production brought to a halt by poor tools. No doubt reputable brands will emerge in due course.

In the meantime, there is a considerable comfort factor in dealing with established suppliers based in the UK. And with more than 30 years experience of supplying industries, tooling and consumables company Stonegate Precision Tooling Ltd brings a level of experience that ensures it can always offer independent advice on stoneworking solutions. 

In addition to its knowledge and industry awareness, Stonegate supplies one of the country’s largest selections of tools, many of which are available from stock on a next day delivery basis.

Stonegate is not a company to rest on its achievements. Its success has been driven through a philosophy of continuous improvement, product development and innovation – both in products and customer experience.

This philosophy is delivered through a collaborative approach, where the company works closely with its customers to understand their challenges and develop tools and services to meet their needs. Examples of this have been the development of the next day delivery service, 30-day risk-free product guarantee and the development of the Stonegate online shop at www.stonegatetooling.com.

This partnership approach is encouraged throughout the business, and the company says all employees believe their clients’ success is their success.

Over the past 30 years, the team has continued to grow to help support the company’s transition from a local tooling supplier to a recognised industry brand and a supplier to international markets.

This growth in sales and staff has brought a corresponding growth in systems and product range. The company is now the sole UK supplier of a number of internationally reputable brands and a distributing of others. Being a leading supplier of CNC tooling in the UK, Stonegate brings the industry ranges from, but not limited to, Diamut, Nicolai Diamant and Status. Stonegate has been able to put together a team of experts who work with clients to find the solutions required.

As the exclusive UK agent for Diamut tools, Stonegate combines quality products and in-depth knowledge of machine technology and materials to bring quality and efficiency to workshops. 

Stonegate has direct access to Diamut’s stock management system and can arrange delivery direct to the client. The ‘right first time’ policy ensures that orders are right first time, every time.

The Status brand of CNC tooling is widely acknowledged as providing highest quality tools and materials at competitive prices, combining strength with quality and undergoing rigorous quality control processes to ensure the tools last a long time and cut with great precision.

Aztec is a leading supplier of wet and dry polishing pads to the stone industry. This range of high quality pads gives a superior finish, extended product life and faster results on engineered stone, granite, marble and other natural stones.

Clients experiencing the success that the Aztec range brings to their company strengthens Stonegate’s exclusive distributorship to this range and adds to the growth of the brand.

For bridge saw blades, Cherokee is Stonegate’s preferred choice for its clients. With its extensive experience and expertise, Stonegate can help with the selection of the correct blade from the Cherokee range to ensure best results for specific applications. For clean cuts on all stones, natural and engineered, Cherokee is Stonegate’s answer.

As part of the company’s policy of continuous improvement, the stock list is increasing all the time and new lines are being added weekly. There are new ranges currently in the pipeline which are due for imminent release.

Stonegate supplies some of the country’s leading stone companies and its team believes the Stonegate reputation for high quality products and their longevity will mean it will continue to be their brand of choice.

With loyalty to the company’s values and vision, Stonegate says it wil continue with aggression towards continuous improvement, dedication to customer service and bringing success for the industry.

Another company that has been built on solving problems for stone companies is

D Zambelis, well known these days as a supplier of machinery but which supplied diamond tools for many years before it started selling machines.

Proprietors Dimitri Zambelis and his wife Stella have made many friends in the industry by being willing to go a good many steps further to ensure their customers get the best products and service.

As stated, diamond tools have revolutionised the processing of natural stone, especially granite – and continue to do so as they become longer lasting, faster, more accurate and produce better finishes all the time.

But because the tools are good at processing granite, it came as a surprise to processors that the same tools could struggle with the new man-made materials.

When the new, ultra-compact products, such as Lapitec and Dekton, were first introduced, some described them as being like ceramics, so processors turned to blades for cutting ceramics to saw and drill them, but that did not prove too successful, either. There has been a sharp learning curve and some processors have resorted to buying new machinery or having inverters fitted to their saws to avoid problems.

 But that is expensive, so D Zambelis worked closely with its blade supplier, Cidiam, and its CNC tool supplier, Nicolai, to develop tools that would work without the use of inverters, even on old saws.

 Zambelis does not sell tools that have not been field tested first by some of its customers and believes it can now offer blades and drills that will cut the new engineered materials on most machines.

The products are not all the same, though. And although the same tools will usually perform similarly on Lapitec and Neolith, Dekton seems to require saw blades and drills of its own, although routers seem to work as well across the board.

Zambelis took some of its new blades along to the Natural Stone Show in London last year to gauge the response, which was positive. Stella has since asked customers with an Achilli MBS 3000 and a Denver Slot, which do not have inverters, to try out her latest blades, with success.

Her aim is to allow customers to process the new materials on existing machinery, although she thinks anyone who is going to be processing a lot of sintered materials might still be better off with new saws and inverters. The message certainly seems to be getting round the industry and machinery suppliers say an increasing number of the machines they sell have inverters.

Another well-established diamond tooling company is Encore Diamond, based in Endmoor, Cumbria. It has been undergoing some changes that have left Alistair Yarwood as the sole shareholder. Encore is well enough known in the North of Britain and down as far as Birmingham, as well as in Ireland, but now it wants to push down to the south coast of England.

Its great strength is that it is the UK and Ireland agent for Dongsin Diaflx (DS), the Korean company. It has represented DS since the previous owner, Barrie Whorrall, took on the agency more than 18 years.

Alistair Yarwood, Encore Diamond Managing Director, says: “I think it is correct to say that Encore Diamond is not currently as well known throughout the UK as some of our competitors.”

Alistair joined Encore Diamond in 2001 as a store assistant. He became Managing Director in 2009 and continued to work alongside Barrie Whorrall until 2014, when Barrie retired. He has now also bought all the shares.

He says: “Historically we have worked with companies in the North of England, Scotland and all over Ireland. But in the coming year we are looking to expand our customer base in the South of England and into Wales.”

Heading that push south is Rob Collins, who joined the company in 2012 as sales manager and on 1 March this year became Director of Sales. Alistair says he appointed Rob to the board “in light of his hard work, commitment, ability and success over the four past years”. Rob will be armed with a new stone tools brochure that should be back from the printers any day.

Encore does not sell tools to the stone industry exclusively, although Alistair says the stone industry does give it some of its more interesting applications. One of those  lately has been the development of tools to work the new engineered stones. Alistair: “We have designed a specialist range of diamond tools for these materials for hand-held, semi-auto and CNC machines.”

Diamond tools come in various versions – metal bond, resin, electroplated, the relatively new polycrystalline (PCD), vacuum brazed and granulated metal bond. These have different price brackets and are generally considered better for different jobs, although there is a lot of crossover.

Alistair says: “All of the metal bond diamond products that we have introduced into our range use a super-soft bond with a high concentration of fine diamond in relation to the grit sizes predominantly used in metal bond diamond applications for natural stone.”

One of the longest established and best known suppliers of tools to the stone industry in the UK and Ireland is Combined Masonry Supplies in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Its headline brand of diamond tools comes from Tyrolit, an Austrian company, although the stone (as well as glass and ceramic) tools are made by an Italian subsidiary, Tyrolit Vincent.

Combined Masonry Supplies sells Tyrolit partly because it is close to the company’s UK headquarters, but Richard Chandler, Director of Combined Masonry Supplies, says he does also import diamond tools from the Far East as well as currently having a DK blade on test with a customer for sawing Dekton. “Everyone is experimenting with Dekton at the moment,” he says. He believes engineered stone now accounts for 70-80% of the worktop market and is still growing.

“It’s relevant to us,” he says, “because if someone wants a blade to cut engineered we need to sell them a different blade to one they will need if they want to cut predominantly granite.”

Andrew Gentle, the Sales Manager at DK Holdings in Kent, where diamond tools are manufacturered, says DK has at least half a dozen of its blades out on trial for sawing Dekton. “There’s no consistency,” he says. He believes even the manufacturers of the slabs are struggling to understand the material.

It is difficult for a UK manufacturer of diamond tools to compete with the imports from the Far East, but Andrew says: “The furrow we’re trying to plough these days is that of bespoke manufacturing for industry.”

And he adds: “Stone in the UK is still remarkably buoyant for us. Core drills, for example. You can buy standard sizes anywhere. But if you want something that is not standard, that’s where we step in.

“People just phone up and say can we make this and we do. We have a good customer base that trusts us to supply what they want at a reasonable price and with a good technical back-up.” But, he says: “Of all the industries we deal with, stone is most driven by price, especially on standard products.”

DK also sells a lot of its Electroflex diamond abrasive sheet to the stone industry and has just installed a new demonstration floor of marble, granite and terrazzo into its premises in Staplehurst for its diamond floor cleaning and polishing equipment, which is also popular.

DK opened a new factory at Staplehurst last year and half of it is involved in the manufacture of the flexible diamond products, which now account for a major part of its sales to all industries.

And, surprisingly, Andrew says trade with China is not all one way. “We sell to China because sometimes people out there don’t want what they can buy locally. It’s not a major part of our business but it’s more than you might think.”

Not all the newcomers trying to break into the tool supply market are based in China, of course. The fast growing LPE Group, which include Breton UK and Comandulli UK as well as Laser Products Europe, from which the Group takes its name, launched LPE Tooling just over a year ago. IT is selling a wide range of power and hand tools, as well as materials handling equipment and diamond tooling.

In diamond tooling it is working with Tyrolit Vincent, supplying Tyrolit’s diamond tooling, blades and wire. LPE says Tyrolit diamond tooling plays an important role in LPE’s aim to offer a comprehensive service to its customers, both those with the Breton machines and those who operate other brands of machinery.

When deciding which tooling to stock, LPE explored many options and chose Tyrolit because its tools are robust and achieve an excellent finish.

The Diamond tooling gives LPE an introduction to businesses it has previously dealt with as a machinery supplier, and that is already opening doors for other companies within the group. 

Adam Stead at Tyrolit says: “We are more than happy to be working alongside LPE Tooling Ltd as we can see how it is rapidly progressing in the market. We want to be moving forward with LPE Tooling during this expansion and working together to ensure that customers are offered an excellent tool, followed by an excellent service at a competitive price to meet all the market needs. As things have gone so far we are very excited for the future.”

Another new company was formed as recently as October last year. It is based in Runcorn, Cheshire and is called Kamen Stone Machines & Tools Ltd. It is headed by Tim Parrington, who started installing worktops in 2009 when he left the army and then, in 2011, established his own company, Cheshire Granite Ltd.

When he started, he built his own bridge saw for £700, which he used for the first 12 months until he could afford £35,000 for a Denver Slot. He also made his own radial arm polisher, which he still uses. “I’m just interested in engineering,” he told NSS. “I love messing about with anything like that.” He plans to make and sell some of his own machinery and is currently working on an edge polisher.

He decided to form Kamen as “another string to my bow” to supply tools, having done a lot of research into the tools available for his own stone processing business. He sources them from various parts of the world, including China. “There’s a lot of rubbish from China but there’s also some good stuff. And it’s a lot cheaper than distributors are charging for it in the UK – I can sell it for half the price. They are all tools we use, so I know they work.”

He says he is sourcing the tools from various makers because a company that might make one tool that works well does not necessarily achieve the same quality of results from other tools it makes.

The range of tools and consumables he is offering is increasing, but is currently available from his website only and has to be paid for by credit card or PayPal.

Another relative newcomer is ATS Diamond Tools Ltd in Redhill, Surrey. Established in 2011, it started with the objective of offering high quality diamond tooling at an affordable price by keeping overheads low. It has no retail premises, no reps and does not plan any expensive marketing campaigns.

Its target audience is stonemasons, worktop fitters, stone tile specialists, restoration and maintenance companies… in fact, anyone looking to cut, profile and grind natural and engineered stone.

ATS says all its tooling is manufactured to its own specification and all the products are extensively tested. “It makes it a long process when products have to go through rigorous testing but we need to ensure we get it right. Buyers remember the quality of products first. If the quality is not good, they will not be our customers any more,” says Paul Ingleby, Joint Managing Director.

“We simply listen to what our customers need. We send new products out to a close circle of stone masons and landscapers for testing. We use the feedback to continue to develop our tooling and increase our range. By doing this we went from a customer base of one in 2012 to more than 2,500 three years later.”

And it is more now because the company exhibited at the Natural Stone Show at Excel London last year, which Paul says turned out to be a huge success for it. “It was great to see so many granite fitters, stonemasons and landscapers who didn’t know we existed and who are now buying from us on a regular basis. It was such a success we have already booked for 2017. As long as we keep our message simple and continue to offer great service and quality products we hope to be supplying this well established industry for many years to come.”

ATS aims to offer value for money but points out that the best value comes from a product that delivers the most cost effective per metre price of finished work, not the lowest purchase price.

This is a new 230mm diamond blade for cutting marble and limestone from Italian company Sorma, which is proud to be making it in Europe. It was sent out to companies for testing at the end of last year and is due to go on general release this year. It is the EDLX 125.
The innovative design is the result of two years of research and development. Sorma says it considerably outperforms its predecessor, the EDLB, in stock removal.
The diamond is on a steel core. Sorma says it has worked closely with its customers across Europe to test the new design on every kind of marble and limestone, including hard Blue Limestone. It says the results were universally impressive.