Let's face it - in today's market, the guys that can provide the highest quality can command the highest price for their work.

The standards that I first learned for installing stone have tightened up over the last 33 years, and now as far as I am concerned, the guy who can do the best looking seams can pretty much pick and choose the jobs he wants to do. This has worked well for me over the years, and now it has become matter of fact that my seams (along with many other fellow fabricators who think the same way I do about seams) help me get my contracts.

So it goes without saying, that when I run into a challenge when doing perfect seams, I will keep trying to find a solution until I succeed. This is why I am writing this month on a new technique that I tried a while back and thought that Slippery Rock readers might benefit from. If you like to do seams that are tighter than a gnat's whisker - and you get chipping from time to time - this article is for you.

Have you ever worked really hard to get a seam dressed "just right?"You spend extra time getting the edges of each side of the seam perfect or sharp enough to cut paper with, only to have one or both edges "chip up" when you pull them tight with your seam puller?

Now, this does not happen on most of the seams that I do, but I recently did some work on a stone classified as a "gneiss" that was the cause of this article. The material would dress really well, but it would chip with out any effort at all. All I had to do was look at it funny, and it would chip and flake off at the edge that I had just spent 15 minutes dressing! With a few select stone species, this can be an event that can lead to male pattern baldness, as you'll be tearing your hair out trying to do a seam that does not have any chips in it.

Just to set the record straight, I use a Seam Phantom from NSI Solutions to dress each side of my seams, using the various heads that are recommended for this type of task. Even with the Seam Phantom, I was still getting chips and it was driving me crazy - especially because I have been doing seam dressing for many years now, with no stone giving me as much trouble as this one particular species was giving me.

And to top it all off, this was happening as I was demonstrating how to "do a perfect seam" (hint: never try this on new stone that you have never worked with before). Needless to say, I was getting pretty frustrated trying to show my client how to dress this stone without it chipping, but to no avail - the chips kept coming.

I then did some research on this as well and came to the conclusion that the stone edges that were to be dressed should have a layer of penetrating epoxy applied to each side, and left to dry completely prior to starting the dressing process. When done on a granite or "like" granite, this will help to "bind" the stone at the molecular level, and make the material harder to chip when the edges are dressed. This technique works well both when you are doing your seam edges with a Seam Phantom, CNC or by hand - doing it "old school" style.

Try this yourself on any granite or like granite. Simply apply a coat of clear penetrating epoxy like Touchstone (see Braxton-Bragg's website) to each piece that will be dressed to fit as a tight seam line. Allow the epoxy to totally dry before working the edges. I like to allow the recommended manufacturer's time for setting, which in most cases will be 24 hours.

The type of penetrating epoxy that you use will have an effect on the color of the stone, so if you have a very light stone, make sure to use a penetrating epoxy that is as clear as possible. Anytime that has a tint in it will result in staining the edges where the seam will be, possibly being counterproductive to the effort at hand - hiding the seam.

Since most of the granites that fabricators work with every day are resined, it only makes sense that if you are using a stone that does chip a lot, it should be resined on the edges of the seams as well, shouldn't it?

Once the penetrating epoxy is totally set on each half of the mating edges of the seam pieces, you can start doing your seam dressing, and your chippage issues should be just a bad memory. Remember also, that some marbles can actually stain down a few shades, so always test any penetrating epoxy on all stones that you want to try this technique on. I have found that many lighter marbles like Carrara, Statuary, Premium Venitino, Calacatta Oro and Onyx will stain from the resins in the epoxy, so always test a piece of stone that you want to do this on first!

In any event, taking a little extra time on stones that are prone to fine chippage will pay off in spades if you add this step to your bag of tricks!

Until next month...

Best Regards & Happy Fabricating!

"Perfect Seams" is a fabrication hands-on topic that is taught each month by Kevin M. Padden at the AZ School of Rock in Gilbert, Arizona. Find out more by logging on to their web site: www.azschoolofrock.com . For more information about class schedules, contact Kevin at 480-309-9422.

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