Stone washing is an essential part of manufacturing denim since it is useful for increasing the softness, and flexibility of the stiff, and rigid denim. Moreover, stone washing also helps produce a worn in, or worn out look for a denim. Thus, stone washing is an essential component for manufacturing denim.
Today, the most used tool for stone washing around the world is Pumice stone; however, Pumice stones are environmentally unsustainable and less effective than their alternative Hand Made Stones (HMS). When conducting the stone washing process with Pumice stones there would be a considerable wastage of electricity since Pumice stones aren’t effective in washing denim with cold water. Thus, in order to use Pumice stones, there would be a need to heat water which takes up electricity and adds to the costs for a company. On the other hand, HMS can work in cold water, so all the costs associated with heating water would be removed, thus, boosting the revenue of companies, and reducing their environmental impact simultaneously. One of the biggest disadvantages of Pumice stones lies in the fact that these stones come in fixed sizes, so these stones can’t be customized to the needs of the denim which greatly limits the options available for denim fashion. Consequently, HMS is customizable to the demands of denim. Each size of HMS is useful for different fabrics and different stone-wash processes. Thus, HMS can expand the fashion possibilities with denim making them more effective than Pumice stones. HMS is far more effective than Pumice stones since it requires 20% less water per a load of denim than Pumice stones as HMS doesn’t soak water, so companies can limit their water consumption in stone washing through the use of HMS instead of Pumice stones. Moreover, HMS takes up a smaller duration of time in order to wash the same load of denim in comparison to Pumice stones, and continuous washes increase this difference exponentially in favour of HMS making it time-efficient. Further, denim doesn’t need to be rinsed after stone washing with HMS since it doesn’t leave a residue like dust on the denim. Finally, HMS is made of Pumice dust, and biodegradable materials making it environmentally sustainable, unlike Pumice stones which need to be mined and leave behind a residue after every stone wash. It’s not too late though to switch to HMS and reap its effectiveness.