Code 1748 applies to employers engaged in manufacturing abrasive wheels or abrasive blocks by heat molding, hydraulic pressure or plating type processes and includes finishing by grinding, polishing or buffing.  This classification is also used for manufacturing sharpening stones for use in honing knives or other implements, and products made from blocks of soapstone, talc or alabaster by cutting and shaping into objects.
 
For abrasive wheel manufacturing, materials such as, but not limited to, powdered silicon carbide, silicon oxide, carborundum, boron, sand, diamond dust, resins, fiberglass, rubber and cement are mixed to a proprietary formula.  The mixed materials are placed in steel molds, compressed using hydraulic presses, and allowed to harden.  They can be further cured by placing in an oven at low or high heat depending on materials used in the formula.  Then they are removed from the molds and can be milled, drilled and turned on a lathe, plus fitted with steel shanks.  Abrasive wheels can also be made by using steel wheel blanks and coating these with diamond dust using a nickel based electroplating solution.  The abrasive wheels are then finished by machining. 

For honed or oil stone products manufacturing, a suitable type of fine-grained rock is cut, turned on a lathe, shaped with various grinding equipment and smoothed with belt and disc sanders.  Items such as figurines or decorative products that require minimal sanding made from soapstone, talc or alabaster are made in a similar manner.