My wife and I just had "Giallo-Fiorito" antique granite countertops installed in our kitchen. The edge profile is "Ogee" and while the outside edge is straight and smooth, I noticed that the curved/cupped edge is kind of wavy all the way down the counters. When I questioned this with the installer, he told me that because the antique granite has soft and hard formations in it this is normal as the grinder/polisher can not put the same amount of pressure in this curved area as it can on the outside straight edge, therefore the little waves. Does not make any sense to me but what do I know. Is this correct or normal or am I being had by the installer.

answers:
SGM:
It doesn't make much sense to me, either, but I'll wait for the fab pros to chime in on this one for the final saying...
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answers:
We had always had varying results with the Ogee profiles. We noticed that in the hardest most consistent stones that we were able to keep the shape uniform and unchanged from what the router gave us after shaping. Then with the stones like yours we experienced a "wavy bumpiness". Then in the softer materials(antique granite and travertine.) we had learned to talk customers out of getting the ogee edge becuase when we polished it we almost always had a couple of spots get so out of shape that we could not send it out as is.
Our problem was our arrogance. We were aware of ogee tooling, pads, sandpaper, techniques, etc. ,that we did not feel we needed. We were secure enough in our abilities with regular pneumatic polisher with wet pads that we found the same problems as your guys. Using the basic polishing tools will make the excuse they gave you somewhat true. However, they knew that the grinders would do that to your stone going in, and they undoubtedly know about the ogee hand polishing pads, or the use of convex pads, or sandpaper, or even just switching to some wet pads that were nearly wore out. What they said was true, but they could have done something differently and I suppose it's possible they were not aware of it. Hopefully , through your displeasure they will do some research before they do it again.

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It is very hard to get an absolutly smooth polish on an Ogee edge. The best edge is going to come from an automated machine. When polishing by hand the fabrictor is unable to adjust pressure for a hard area of stone versa softer area of stone. I have guys that have been polishing antique granite for over ten years and I rarely feel and absolutly smooth ogee edge that was done by hand. Some stones are better than others and some fabricators are better than others.
I know of no way to smooth out an ogee edge like that with out completely starting over.

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When my shop encounters a stone with "hard" and "soft" areas we always resort back to the old ways of shaping and honing the edges, it takes longer but the finish is much better. then from about 800 grit and up we go back to the fast way. Nothing leaves my shop until I'm sure it won't return. I hardly have time to do all the jobs once let alone try to find time to do them over again.

answers:
Update to my earlier post:

we found hand-held polishing blocks which held the ogee shape.
Finally though, we have found that we could not ask for a more uniform ogee outcome than what we have got from the use a CNC. no more bumps, no more waves and our polishers could not be more relieved.

answers:
something we've been doing in the shop lately for polishing difficult profiles is the use of 4 1/2" discs on a 2" backing pad to allow for some flex. unfortunately it puts a lot of wear and tear on some of the higher diamonds. 9 times out of 10, a CNC polishing tool supplied is made of clay, so we have no choice but to polish by hand after 400 grit.
it's time consuming, but a fail-safe system i've found is (assuming it's machine profiled): grinder 400, tin oxide, buff, grinder 800, hand 1000, tin oxide, buff, grinder 1500, hand 1800, tin oxide, buff, grinder 3000, hand 3500 (especially in the difficult spots), tin oxide, final buff. mixing some color with the tin oxide helps. when it's all dried and cleaned, apply some wax and scrub away with steel wool.
diarex sells a good package of grits for a hand sander. the higher grits pay themselves off in no time when you're doing a lot of on-site seaming, repairs, or 90 degree profiles.


answers:
Hey clearcreek,
I get the problem with the clays. I don't get tin oxide and buff starting at 400.
Something doesn't add up, if you end up waxing it, anyway.
Might want to check out the SFA, for some help on this. Great production advice over there.
Regards,