Same stone.
Four different stones.
Finish changes colour, grip and how a stone weathers more than most buyers expect — a flamed red reads two shades lighter than the polished slab beside it. Ten finishes, six thicknesses and four edges, and any of them can be mixed on one piece.
Ten finishes,
and what each is for.
Most orders use two — a polished face with sawn sides, or a honed top with a pitched edge. Tell us the face, the sides and the back separately.
Polished
SurfaceMirror gloss
Reflective, the deepest colour a stone will give. The memorial standard, and the ground for lettering.
Honed
SurfaceMatt, smooth
Flat matt surface. Hides handling marks and fingerprints far better than polish on black stone.
Flamed
SurfaceRough, grippy
Torched so the surface spalls. Lightens the colour, gives outdoor grip, brings red granite up.
Bush-hammered
SurfacePitted, even
Mechanically pitted to a regular texture. Slip resistant and very hard wearing.
Leather
SurfaceSoft sheen
Brushed to a low, slightly textured sheen. Popular on blacks where polish shows every mark.
Sandblasted
SurfaceFrosted
Blasted to a pale matt. Used for lettering grounds, borders and contrast panels.
Sawn
SurfaceAs cut
Straight off the saw. The face nobody sees — backs, bed joints and hidden sides.
Natural / riven
SurfaceSplit face
Split along the stone's own bed. Every piece different, grippy when wet.
Rock pitched
SurfaceHand chiselled
A rough chiselled edge, traditional on monument sides and boulder work.
Tumbled
SurfaceAged edges
Softened in the drum so faces and arrises look weathered from the day it is laid.
On black granite, honed and leather hide handling marks far better than polish — worth knowing before a family cleans a polished memorial with the wrong cloth.
Six thicknesses,
and where each goes.
Calibrated to the millimetre so tiles set flat. Anything heavier is cut to your drawing rather than to a stock size.
Monuments and cut-to-size units are quoted in finished dimensions, not slab thickness — send the drawing and the thickness follows from it.
Four edges,
in section.
The edge decides how the piece survives handling. A sharp arris looks crisp in a photograph and chips on the first bad lift.
Not sure which finish?
We will courier three.