Natural stone finishes are the techniques by which a mason gives the surface of stone its final texture. The choice governs not only appearance but also slip resistance, how readily the surface holds dirt, and price. Broadly, they run from rough and hand-worked to smooth and machine-produced.
The main finishes
- Riven or sawn — the face as the stone splits or comes off the saw. Lively, but not flat. Common for cladding and garden walls
- Tooled (batted or droved) — parallel grooves struck with a chisel across the face. Recognisable by its fine striped relief; traditional on Belgian bluestone
- Bush-hammered — the face is struck evenly with a hammer head carrying pyramidal points, producing a granular, grippy surface. Ideal for treads and ramps
- Honed — machine ground to a flat, even matt surface with no gloss. The standard for cills, thresholds and many floors
- Polished — ground further to a mirror gloss, bringing colour and figure fully out. Beautiful, but slippery and vulnerable to scratching and acid
- Flamed — the surface is treated with a burner so that grains spall off, giving a rough, non-slip texture. Mainly on granite and for external paving
- Blasted — matted and lightly roughened with grit; the calmer alternative to flaming
Edges are specified separately: arris, pencil-round, chamfered or moulded.
How to choose
- Slip resistance — outdoors and on stairs, bush-hammered, flamed or blasted are the safe choices. Polished is slick when wet
- Maintenance — polished is the easiest to keep clean; rough finishes trap more dirt
- Cost — hand-worked finishes such as tooling and bush-hammering are labour-intensive and therefore dearer than machine honing
- Style — in conservation the finish belongs to the period; a honed slab next to nineteenth-century tooled work is instantly obvious
Points to watch
- Colour shifts with the finish. The same bluestone reads pale grey honed and almost black polished. Always judge a sample in the actual finish
- Ask for an edge sample, not just a face sample
- Outdoors, every finish weathers. Polished work loses its gloss within a few years
- Reworking on site rarely matches the original; have special pieces finished in the workshop
Related terms
- Stone dressing
- Natural stone maintenance
- Natural stone replacement
- Granite
- Marble
- Bluestone
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