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Structural Stone offers a full line of finishes as listed below.

Polished, honed, and thermal are the most commonly used finishes. With hundreds of color and finish combinations, Structural Stone provides a diverse pallet for the most demanding projects. Sawn: A finish is not applied to the stone; the appearance of the surface is a result of blade or wire used to cut it. A sawn finish will produce a flat but raw stone. Primarily used on curbing. Honed: A honed finish is smooth and shows the full color of the stone without reflection. This is the same procedure used to polish, but the honing process ends before the buffing stage. Polished: Polished granite is highly reflective and all of the color, depth, and crystal structure is brought out. By polishing granite, the surface pores become sealed, making the stone nearly impervious to weather and chemical wear. Machine Tooled (4-cut/6-cut/8-cut): This bush-hammered finish consists of parallel, concave grooves in the stone. A heavy duty, surface pneumatic tool produces 4, 6, and 8 bats (grooves) to the inch. The depth of the groove varies with the number of bats used but will range from 1/32" to 1/16" deep and from 3/32 to 7/32 apart. Thermal/Flamed: This finish is achieved by applying a high temperature flame and cool water to the surface of the stone simultaneously. The flame fractures the crystals on the face while the water prevents splitting, leaving a rough-textured finish. The thermal finish is commonly used on exterior paving applications since it is highly slip resistant. Sandblasted (Fine Coarse Stippled): Powered by compressed air, the sandblast machine forces 20, 40, or 60 grade sand directly onto the stone. This leaves a fine to coarse planed surface on the stone. Split Face: A rugged, uneven, concave-convex finish that reveals reflections from the crystal is produced by the splitting action of a guillotine. Detail character ranges from low to high for fine grain through coarse grain stones, respectively. The stones are split to the specified wall thickness but will have a random tolerance. Rock Face: Done by hand with a chipping tool, rock face stone is chipped around the perimeter to produce a bold, convex projection along its face. This finish creates a more massive appearance than split face. Detail character ranges from low to high for fine grain through coarse grain stones, respectively. Pointed: A rough and uneven surface resulting from splitting, pointing and/or rough cutting the granite. Diamond 4/6/8 Water Jet: Because thermal and honed finishes do not maximize the color of the stone, a diamond finish can be applied to enhance it. The diamond finish is achieved by water jetting stone with 4, 6, or 8 heads by either hand or machine. Sculptured: Expert stonecutters hand-carve any type of stone similar to the traditional Roman methods. Custom Finishes: Structural Stone will work with their clients to achieve their desired custom finish.

Surface Finishes

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NEW! Leathered
"Leathering" is the process of texturing granite or marble to appear less glossy. This process amplifies the natural characteristics of granite or marble, resulting in an exquisite surface. It is easy to clean and maintain, as well as, pleasing to the touch - a perfect balance between style and practicality. A leathered countertop is a fresh and innovative way of adding a subtle elegance to your decor.

Sandblasted
In sandblasting, a high-pressure jet of siliceous sand or steel shots is applied to the area to be treated. This treatment produces a smooth abrasion, leaving the material with a slightly scratched (but not rugged) surface. The colour tones and the veins are slightly dulled.

Vintage
Our exclusive vintage finish blends in well with both modern and antique designs and its appearance is both attractive and durable. The resulting patina finish is highly recommended for kitchen environments.

Rigato
Rigato is a machine finish that gives a linear pattern cut to the stone. This finish gives an added design factor when applied to a wall. All stones can have this finish applied to them.

Polished
A polished finish is created when a stone surface reaches it's most refined stage. It is buffed to the highest level possible, and the results are either a high shine or the actual highest level of shine that can be achieved naturally. This finish gives the stone a very elegant and rich look, providing it with a pinnacle depth of colour.

Split Face
The split face finish is a result of the stone being cut by a guillotine that fractures the face and turns it to a rocky finish.

Natural Cleft
This finish is associated with materials that are layered and thus, when split, do so on a natural fault creating what is known as a natural cleft finish. Slates are the most common types of stone that can split naturally.

Honed
This finish is created by buffing the stone to slightly less than the highest level. The result is a smooth but dull appearance. A honed finish refers to any level that is less than polished and therefore encompasses many levels of dullness.

Flamed
A Flamed finish is produced when an intense flame is fired at the stone, causing the surface to burst and become rough. This finish is used primarily for exteriors applications where slip-resistance is extremely important. A flamed finish cannot be applied to all stones; however, most granite and certain hard limestone are preferred.

Flamed and Brushed


This process entails passing a blowpipe that emits a hightemperature flame over the surface to be treated. The heat acts by blowing the crystals out as they suffer thermal shock, with an effect that is particularly evident in materials composed of minerals with various degrees of expansion, (such as the vast majority of granites). The resulting surface is rough, non-slip and generally faded in colour, thereby hiding defects and tone variations. Because of oxidation, yellow materials become orange or red.

Bush-Hammered
A bush hammer is a specialized stone-working hammer with a head that resembles a meat tenderizing hammer. Because the head of the hammer is usually small (about 1-2 inches square) it takes a long time to apply this finish to a large surface area. The result leaves the surface of the stone fairly smooth with small indentations. A bushhammered finish can be applied to nearly all stones.

Bush-Hammered and Brushed


A bush-hammered and brushed effect is obtained by pounding the material surface mechanically or by hand with a specific multipointed tool. This method creates a rugged surface full of little grazes at the impact points, giving the surface a lighter colour. The surface becomes non-slip. This technique has been replaced by flaming and pressure water finishing which is a quicker and less expensive process.

Surface Finishes
If you are a fabricator or distributor please contact Percoco Stone Finishing Center for your stone finishing needs & sample boards and job specific sampling/testing. We offer the following surface finishes for stone in addition to the factory finish: polished, honed, leathered, carresed, Tuscan, bush-hammered, raked, scarpaletto (course & fine) and flamed. Please refer to the definitions below for more information on each finish. Additionally there are pictures of finished kitchens in our gallery with the leather finish. Note that some finishes are only available as factory finishes. It should be noted for countertop use that only the polished, honed, caressed and leaterhed finishes are recommended. The Tuscan finish can be used for countertops as well, but in lower use areas. The bush-hammer, rake, scarpaletto and flame finishes are all rougher raw finishes recommended for decorative uses (vertical surfaces or anti-slip exterior and/or commercial walkways)

Factory:
The finish put on the slab at the processing facility (factory) before being exported. Generally polished for most marbles and granites, and honed for most shist and limestones. Slates mostly come as cleft face. Additionally some materials are available in multiple finishes (ie a stone may be mostly exported polished, but a smaller quantity is exported honed).

Polished:
This is the standard factory finish for most granites and marbles. A polished surface is highly reflective and the least porous of the finishes available.

Polished marbles can be etched with many household acids and cleaners. Onsite surface refinishing is NOT recommended and can be spotty at best.

Leathered:

Leather Finish on Ubatuba Granite

This finish adds texture to the surface. Additionally, it closes the pores (compared to honing) and retains the color better than honing. While a leathered finish has a sheen to it, it is no where near as reflective as a polished surface. A good analogy would be that a leathered finish is like a matte finish on a photograph whereas a polished surface is like a glossy photograph. Please note that the amount of texture will vary from stone to stone and some stones will not leather (especially extremely uniform materials). Leathering is preferred to honing for blacks and other very dark materials. For example the amount of texture on Absolute Black is minimal and very fine grained, and the finish is much more uniform than honing Absolute Black. Leathering starts with a honed surface and adds texture, and is a completely different process than river washed (see below).

Caressed:
This finish adds gloss to the leathered finish above. Starting with a leathered finish and then "polishing" the high spots. This of couse closes the pores more than the leathered finish, but not as much as a polished finish.

Honed:
This is the standard factory finish for schists and most limestones (most of which will NOT take a polish). Honing a polished material opens up the pore making it more susceptible to staining than the same material in a polished finish. At home re-finishing is possible, and the end result will vary from stone to stone (see re-finishing in our care and cleaning section). Honing will "grey out" or fade the color of the stone, this is more noticeable on darker materials than on lighter materials. A color enhancing sealer is available and may be used to restore the color (if desired). Also note that very dark materials (especially

blacks) tend to end up with an un-even finish and a honed finish is not recommended.

Bush hammered:
Another textured finish. This is best for external use. Bush hammering will "grey out" or fade the color of the stone to an even greater extent than honing. This finish is rougher than leathering and more uniform. This finish can be done to virtually any stone.

Tuscan:
The Tuscan finish is similar to the River Wash finish in that it is a brushed finish. However the Tuscan finish starts with a bush hammered finish rather than a flamed finish (that is the basis of the river washed finish).

Flamed:
A flamed finish is created using an extremely hot flame. The heat stresses the material causing crystals to pop out. Flaming creates a very rough texture best used for exterior purposes only. A flamed finish is excellent for exterior walkways. Flaming can only be done on granites. Many of the following finishes are only available as factory finishes. We can NOT offer any of these finishes UNLESS the slabs you select already have the desired finish on them.

Antiqued:
This is actually a style of finishes rather than a particular finish. Leathered, river washed, and tumbled finishes are all examples of an antiqued finish. A factory finish smiliar to a leathered finish is sometimes called an antiqued finish.

Brushed:
This term is sometimes used to refer to either a leather finish or a river washed finish. Unfortunately, this leads to ambiguity as there are distinct differences between leathered and river washed finishes.

Cleft face:
This is most commonly seen on slate and sandstones. Cleft face is simply the natural splitting along the layers as the stone is removed from the quarry. This is a factory finish only.

Sandblasted:
This textured surface can vary (like leathering) based on the composition of the stone being blasted. Also other blast media (instead of sand) may be used creating differences in the end result. Blasting will also "grey out" or fade the color (even more so than honing). A blasted surface is extremely porous and will be very hard to keep clean. Recommended for decorative use only.

River washed:

This finish is the pre-cursor to the leather finish. Before a slab can be river washed it must first be flamed. The river washing process simply smooths out the roughness of the flamed finish. River washed surfaces are good for interior or decorative use and NOT recommended for countertops. River washed is only available as a factory finish at this time.

Tumbled:
This finish applies to marble tiles that are literally tumbled to create a weathered or distressed look. There is some texture as well as softening of edges on the finished tiles.

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