How We Do It
Curious about how stone is taken from the ground and transformed into finished products? Follow along as we take a tour…
The first step in any stone operation is to remove the stone from the ground. Any overburden of dirt is removed to reveal the stone deposit. Each quarry uses different methods to extract the stone depending upon the type of stone, the way it is formed and lays in the ground, and the end product being made.
Bandera Quarry: This natural flagstone is deposited in horizontal layers of varying thickness. Tractor-mounted or walk-behind saws are used to cut the layers into manageable sizes. Each layer is lifted and removed using a skid-steer with fork attachment, then placed on pallets or stockpiled for further processing.
Winterset Quarry: A thicker stone deposit allows for block removal. A quarry saw (imagine a chainsaw on steroids) is used to make a relief cut five feet deep along a 50 foot length of cleared quarry floor. Heavy-duty air bags are then placed in the relief cut and expanded to force the row of stone to separate from the wall. These blocks are graded for quality to determine suitability for future processing as cut stone or marked to use in making veneer.
What happens once the stone is quarried depends upon the product that is being made.
The process to create cut stone pieces begins with using a large saw to cut the quarried block into slabs of the desired thickness. These slabs are further cut to size and shape by smaller saws and tools. Machine and hand routers, polishers, and other tools are used for the final shaping and finishing of each piece of cut stone.