Cutting elements may be used to degrade hard surfaces in roadway surface milling, earthworking, mining, or other in situ disintegration processes. A plurality of such cutting elements may be disposed on a movable base and thereby brought into engagement with a degradable surface. Groupings of the plurality of cutting elements may comprise unique cutting surface geometries. Various groupings may be arranged on the movable base such that the degradable surface forms a cross-sectional topography resembling a waveform comprising truncated peaks.