Foreman Jukka Jokela: “Palin Granit has a well-developed, accurate quality process”
A second generation stoneman, foreman Jukka Jokela has been working for Palin Granit for almost 30 years. Today, the best thing about his job is the confidence and skill brought by years of experience.
Jukka Jokela is a stonemason with decades of experience.
Watering the stone improves efficiency and precision of the quarrying process
Quality inspection of granite requires a careful eye. It is necessary to distinguish between different very subtle shades of color and to find possible irregularities in stone.
- The most challenging part of working with natural material is the uniformity of the material and the integrity of the stone. Granite tends to hold surprises that are not detectable from the surface, Jukka says.
Palin Granit actively develops the quality inspection process. Already at the beginning of the excavation process, the first large detached piece of granite is sprayed with water in order to check where the stone should be further processed. Spraying water on the stone emphasizes its color and highlights possible quality defects. Unnecessary drilling is avoided and the extraction process is more efficient in both quality and quantity.
After cutting the large granite piece into individual granite blocks they are sprayed with water once more, then inspected and graded into their own categories.
- The quality classification process is really good and accurate at Palin Granit thanks to continuous development. This accuracy is the result of multiple water spraying rounds and careful inspections by several different people.
Spraying the block with water is an important part of the quality process.
Half a century of stone work
Jukka became a stoneman by following the example of his father and brothers at the age of 16. Jukka first became familiar with stone quarrying in an open pit quarry helping his father set explosives at the site. Working with stone got him so invested that school sometimes came second:
- Once there were some familiar stonemen drilling along my school path who invited me to work with them. I never made it to school that day, he laughs.
Shortly after working in the open pit, Jukka worked as a fabric inspector at a company specializing in high-quality men’s suits. According to him all fabrics coming to the factory were run through a lighted inspection table to check for possible defects. The attentive eye Jukka developed when inspecting fabrics has since benefited the inspecting of the quality of granite.
After the fabric inspector's job, Jukka made felt roofs for a while, but was eventually drawn back into the excavation work. He switched to quarrying granite blocks at the age of 18.
A hard-working foreman leads by example
In 1992, Jokela started working at Palin Granit as a foreman of the Kotka quarry. He has also worked in Taivassalo and Ylämaa, first at Baltic Green - and then at the Baltic Brown quarry no. 12. Jokela is known as a hard-working foreman who leads by example.
- Jukka is a very active person, and has a hard time being still whether we are at work or on a fishing trip. We call Jukka ”chop chop” because he is always on the move, laughs Pauli Salmela, Palin Granit's Technical Director.
In 2018, the Board of Vuoriteknikot Ry, an association of Finnish mining technicians awarded Jukka an honorary certificate for meritorious work done for the benefit of mining and quarrying technology.