Natural diamonds have been used as defined edge cutting tools for bundreds of years. Following the introduction of synthetic diamond grit in the 1950's, the 1970's yielded a second diamond-based cutting tool material, also based on high pressure synthesis technology, namely polycrystalline diamond (PCD). Until the late 1980's these two products were the only commerical diamond materials available for the manufacture of defined edge cutting tools. Tooling based on these natural and synthetic diamond materials clearly complement each other with little or no overlap - the PCD suited to general purpose machining operations and all but the most demanding and specialised finishing operations, such as in the production of aluminium mirrors, where single-point natural diamond cutting tools are essential in order to achieve the required surface finish and dimensional tolerances.
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