Grinding practice is a large and diverse area of tool production and manufacturing. It can produce very fine finishes and very precise dimensions, but in the context of mass production, it can also coarse large quantities of metal quite quickly. It is usually better suited for machining very hard materials than "normal" machining and until the last decades this has been the only practical way of machining materials such as hardened steels. Compared to "regular" machining, it is usually better suited for making very shallow cuts.