Chipping is the number-one cause of fabrication loss on sintered stone — and it is almost never the material's fault. Four variables decide the result: blade, support, water and feed.
Sintered stone is fired porcelain: extremely hard, but with none of granite's forgiving grain. A blade that wanders, a slab that vibrates, or a dry cut will show up instantly as chips along the edge — usually in the last 30 cm, where the blade exits. Work through the four variables in order.
Use a continuous-rim diamond blade rated specifically for porcelain / sintered stone — not a segmented granite blade. Check for runout before the first cut: a wobbling blade chips no matter what else you fix. Dress a glazed blade on a dressing stone when cuts start to wander.
The slab must lie fully supported on a flat, clean table — no overhangs, no debris underneath. Most "mystery" bottom-edge chipping is vibration: the slab flexes microscopically at the cut line and the underside breaks out. Vacuum pods or a full sacrificial backer board both work.
Plenty of clean water on both sides of the blade, aimed at the contact point. Water is not optional coolant here — it carries heat and fines out of the kerf. Starved water = heat = micro-cracks that appear later as chips.
Let the blade cut; never push a sintered slab through. As a starting point on a bridge saw, fabricators typically run 12 mm material at roughly 0.8–1.2 m/min and tune from there. Slow further for the first and last 30 cm of every cut — entry and exit are where chips are born.
Do all straight cuts first, then openings. Internal corners of sink and hob cut-outs must be drilled or radiused (5 mm minimum radius) — a square internal corner is a crack waiting for its first hot pan.
Every FosBuild quotation can include the factory's fabrication parameters for the exact slab you ordered.
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