Wow! Can you see that IRL? I saw a "titanium black" featured as the stone of the month on this website, http://www.elegant-granite.com/ Clearly no relation to the picture you posted. Hang in there, Peke! 5 years from now you'll hardly remember the hassles of this stone selection process but you'll still be enjoying a rock it took thousands of years to create.

Peke,

I love this! Too busy for a kitchen like mine, but it is beautiful,

Karen

The colors are perfect.

Kksmama, no I haven't seen it IRL. The rust streaks would match my cabinet color.

Karen, It is probably too busy for mine too. I just love the
aquas. Peke

Peke, i think it would look fabulous surrounding a fireplace. Can you imagine how nice it would look in the light from a fire? The colors are fantastic. You must be traveling all over the place to find such a variety of stone. Thanks for sharing all the pictures.

I just figured out that "titanium" has been mislabeled. I really think it is a blue "fusion". What do you think?

I just type in blue quartzite and find slabs from all over. My traveling has been limited to Dallas and Tulsa. Dallas is 3 1/2 hours away and Tulsa is 2 hours away so I have to travel to look at anything beyond builders grade gold.

I think I figured out something else....but I might be way off base. It's about quartzite.

Karin, is it possible that there is a quartzite that looks more like crystals? They look totally different than all other hquartzite when close up. Maybe they are the " soft" quartzites. I am thinking of cristallo/kristallo, iceberg blue, etc. A fabricator near me said cristallo was one of the hardest stones to cut. It was the first quartzite they had ever cut.

Here is a close up of the "crystals" I am talking about. (crystals might not be the best word. It is more like small shapes of stones.)

Peke

Here is a close up of the cristallo the fabricator said was very hard.

This is fusion. I think it looks like the picture called titanium.

Hi all! I'm deep in the throes of renovation this week. I bought all my tile. I'm deciding between 2 kitchen designers and cabinets. They both should be getting me quotes this week. My guest bathroom vanity is very small (27 in wide). I'm doing this piece of fusion, with a banjo, and an 8 in backsplash. I'm looking for a clear glass vessel sink with a touch of green. Hoping to leave FL next week with a lot more finalized. Fell in love with the fusion...

JoanLast, I can see why you fell in love with it. Gorgeous.

And yes, Peke, I think what they called Titanium looks an awful lot like Fusion, now that you mention it.

I'm curious what Karin will say about the quartzite "crystals." I'd say that looks like quartz rather than calcite, but I'm not trained. Didn't Karin say that calcite would have sort of rhombus/parallel cleavage, while quartz has hexagonal crystals and uneven fracture. It sure is pretty, whatever it is. I love that crystalline appearance.

Are you going to go see Fusion anyplace? Boy, I thought it was a big deal to go 1.5 hours away to check out a stone yard. Can you get them to send you email pictures of some of their slabs so you can at least know which direction to drive?

Peke,

I love that "titanium quartzite". Could you ask them to e-mail you more pictures of the slab or to verify the name? I've seen a lot of different slabs of Fusion here in Florida. My fabricator just lost a job with 7 slabs, because it was just too expensive. The variation from one side of a slab to the other side is huge. I would have to see the slab before committing. Fusion is beautiful, but busy. The blues in the slabs I saw were much darker. I didn't notice much aqua in the Fusion slabs I looked at. My sister just had a pretty blue granite installed this week. I'll have to dig up the picture and send it. I should be sleeping right now, not thinking about all this kitchen stuff. LOL! Renovations and being 53 are not helping my sleep!

Peke,

This is my sister's Blue Sky. I'll be able to see it installed on Wednesday.

Peke, yes, a quarzite can have "crystals," and a marble can as well. What it really is is larger crystals, which can mean the rock was closer to melting, or did partially melt, or had water present which allows larger crystals to form. The rocks that look more grainy just have smaller crystals; simple as that.

There is no such thing as soft quartzite, and the size of the crystals has nothing to do with the hardness of the stone. So you can rule out those variables.

Both marble and quartzite can have small crystals, medium-sized, or large crystals. But if the crystals are larger you might be able to see the rhombus shapes or subtle lines that intersect at 120 degrees and 60 degrees in marble, making diagnosis a little bit easier. It's unlikely with quartzite that you'd see hexagonal shapes.

If the fabricator says it's very hard, that's a good sign of quartzite!

I think I found it! I've looked at a lot of slabs, and I think I considered all materials and colors: marble, soapstone, wood, black, white, blue, brown, tan, silver - they all looked good to me at one time or another.
The Sweeby test helped me come around to seeing that I wanted a calming, neutral pattern with a black background. This isn't at all a good picture, I'm taking dh for final approval and will get a sample. But this seems like the super hard, bullet proof stuff and it did scratch glass easily. IRL you can see what looks like waves of sand and all the movement goes one direction. They say it is from India, so far I can't find any info on it on any other website. Karin, any thoughts?

Here is a link that might be useful:

A better picture. But it doesn't look nearly so busy in person. Maybe because the slab is so big? I feel badly for the TKO who have to drive further to see slabs, I'm finding only the loosest association between how something looks in pictures and how it looks IRL. This picture is too intense for me, too much pattern and contrast but I didn't think so when I was there. I think this might be called black markino, still can't find any info on it on the web.

Hubby and I went to the Parade of Homes in Jerome Twnshp today. It is near Columbus, OH. We saw some very interesting granites and marbles!

I found a new favorite, Alpine White, honed, but not completely, as it had some streaks of shine scattered throughout. Looks like a marble. It is not Super White. They call it granite, but is it really granite? I saw another stone that either was quartzite or granite with big quartzite crystals, but I forgot to ask the "hosts" of that house. Then there was a third granite, that if I loved green I would definitely use that stone. The pattern was linear sage green with white and cranberry colors, garnet maybe? A very subdued piece.

Blue Pearl or Alpine White? Or both?

Karen

I'm going to the Parade of Homes next week. You've got me excited to check out the granite!

Thanks!
Joan

We didn't go into every house because we were on a mission to look at the wood floors by Schlabach out of Millersburg. I love what they do! Wish I had known about them when I added onto the house ten years ago. I hope they are competitive with pricing. We looked at house #13 love the gas lights at front door and the floor. I think #6 had the Alpine White granite. Number 3 may have the green and garnet granite. This granite is on the front cover of the booklet. Where is the kitchen with the quartzite type island? Can't remember, but it should be on the west side of the street. So tired right now, it all runs together, plus it was HOT. There was one house with, "what were they thinking granite?" see if you find it!

I remember when this was a sleepy little area. Now it is too much like Muirfield. Why does anyone want to spend that much money and then watch your neighbor in their backyard? Wish they could have developed an equestrian community because it is so close to Glacier Ridge, plus there are two riding stables nearby. I think Columbus would have benefitted from this idea and it might have worked since it is near the city. Oh well, my rant for the day. Have fun, because they are quite nice.

Karen

KKsmama,

Nice find, I'm happy for you! The rock is a metamorphic rock called gneiss (pronounced "nice") and it's going to be totally durable. Gneiss forms from heating and compression of a rock to the point where the mineral ingredients separate into bands. Each band has similar minerals in it, so it looks like stripes of different colored minerals. The banding is perpendicular to the direction the compression came from. So in the second photo you posted, it got squeezed from the lower right and upper left.

Because the rock was hot and semi-fluid, the bands become swirls in some places.

Gneiss contains the same minerals as granite and will behave similarly. I'd expect it to hold up really well.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing the happy news!

Karen, I looked up Alpine White and it looks like more than one stone goes by that name. In one case it was one of those mystery rocks that looks like either quartzite or marble and the stone yard listed it as AKA Super White. But other photos showed a granite-type rock that looks sort of like Alaska White. If you do a Google image search you'll see both kinds.

Joan

Maybe you could take pictures and post them. I don't have that capability with my old flip phone!

Karen

Karin,

I have seen where they can be called the same. All of the Super White to me looks different. A much stronger marbling and darker, but it could have been the shipment. It was too funny with one of the reps, because I kept calling it Alpine White, she kept saying it was gray! But it's white! LOL

Karen

Karin,

I have seen where they can be called the same. All of the Super White to me looks different. A much stronger marbling and darker, but it could have been the shipment. It was too funny with one of the reps, because I kept calling it Alpine White, she kept saying it was gray! But it's white! LOL

Karen

Karen,

I looked at a great house in an equestrian community in Blacklick when I moved to OH a few years ago. We're on the reservoir 10 minutes east of the Parade homes.

Joan,

Yes,
It seems like all of the good equestrian communities are on the east side. Rocky Fork Hunt Club is near Gahanna and there are several stables in the Johnstown area. Tami Longaberger bought a huge property to raise Thoroughbreds, but dispersed the herd when she became pregnant.

We couldn't live on the east side because my husband transferred from PA to work at Scotts Miracle Gro in Marysville. We live in the Boonies of Richwood.

Karen

Thank you, Karin! I'm super excited now, I had kinda thought that I wouldn't love my countertops, it was easy for me to find reasons NOT to like all the other slabs I'd seen. But this one is perfect for me, it has just the right amount and kind of movement, and the right balance of the right colors. DH and my kids like it too.

I brought a sample home today and taped out a grid, put red wine vinegar, lemon juice, muriatic acid, ketchup, raspberry jam, coffee, and tumeric with oil on it and left for a few hours. No changes. I whacked it hard with the heavy handle of a butter knife and did put a crack in it (and then easily snapped that corner off) but the sample is 1cm so I hope that my 3cm counters wouldn't do the same? I was able to scratch glass with it, but a sharp glass corner also scratched the stone a little when pressed very hard. On the broken edge, small glittery flakes (mica?) are numerous. I feel terrible about the abuse I've heaped on this cute little square!

Love all the great torture research!
Karen, we should meet at Doc Henderson's and commiserate over a great lunch:-)

Joan.

What a great idea. Haven't been there for a while.
My email is trisox1984@yahoo.com

Off topic but... So funny to know there are so many people on GW around Columbus!

Hi Karin,

Is there any difference between a 'quartz' and a 'quartzite'?

It's interesting, Antonlini seems to have both, but the 'quartz' is not the engineered kind.

If the link doesn't work google antolini naica quartz

Here is a link that might be useful: Pure Quartz?

j_hack

Great comment. If you don't live in Ohio, at least we do have something in common besides rocks. June is a great month. :-)

Karen

lucas - Ooh, ooh! Pick me! I know this one! Who would have thought that prepping DD for her Earth Science Regents Exam would have been so useful?

Pure quartz sand can turn into sedimentary sandstone. Sandstone metamorphosizes (through tectonic forces, as the site says) into quartzite. It is pure quartz - quartz is the mineral, quartzite is the rock. As pure quartz, it has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale, which makes it pretty hard.

That is beautiful stone - so subtle.

I am in Columbus. We just moved back from West Virginia (thankfully). We are having a house built in Grove City currently, but we have lived all around Columbus... Pickerington, Hilliard, Grandview, and Columbus itself. We are happy to be home for sure. My wife is ready for me to stop with research, but I'm not ready or finished! There are so many choices to make!

Thankfully Karen has chimed in with all the rock info and everyone's pictures help to visualize it all. So thanks everyone for the info and pics!

Thanks Ginny20.

I haven't seen that one, though there are dealers in the area that carry that line, and even more important, I haven't seen the price yet ;-)

But need to look at all possibilities!

Thanks Ginny20.

I haven't seen that one, though there are dealers in the area that carry that line, and even more important, I haven't seen the price yet ;-)

But need to look at all possibilities!

kksmama, I just saw your post here about your counter top choice. It is beautiful! What a nice choice! I'll bet you are glad you didn't find anything earlier. Looks like this was just meant to be!

kksmama, I just saw your post here about your counter top choice. It is beautiful! What a nice choice! I'll bet you are glad you didn't find anything earlier. Looks like this was just meant to be!

The slab that animacafe posted on June 1, that looks like a collection of pebbles, is Black & Gold Marinace (sometimes also called Mosaic among other things). It is literally the bottom of a riverbed in Brazil, all the small stones are the pebbles and stones that collected at the bottom of the river, and the black rock filling in all the space between them is a sedimentary rock (as Karin explained in an earlier thread). So it's technically a mega conglomerate, and a really interesting stone. When we first saw it, we loved it but thought it was too wild for our kitchen, but in the end we ended up using it and absolutely love it. We had the finish leathered, which removed the polished glare (and makes it look more natural) and gave it a very subtle texture which ends up being something that people can't resist "petting." It's a wonderful granite and we are thrilled that we took the risk over something safer. I posted a thread with pics earlier (my iPhone photos don't begin to do it justice, but you can get an idea) and I'm posting it here so anyone interested can see that such a "wild" granite can end up working. It's not to everyone's taste, but we love it. And thanks to the fine folks at Garden Web, we ended up with a wonderfully functional kitchen that is a joy to work in.

Here is a link that might be useful: Reveal thread

Fabulous reveal, Gone_South, thanks for the link! Those counters are perfect for your space and vice versa!
Thanks, Holly-kay, I really am thrilled with the Godiva and I am fairly sure it isn't just because I'm a chocolate fiend. Funny about all these decisions: once you find the "right" answer it is easy to move on to the next question...the ones that aren't quite right keep nagging!
Karin, I hope you're around to start Round 4 of great rocks, I'm not giving up on Peke!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rocks #4 marble, granite, quartzite

This post was edited by kksmama on Thu, Jul 4, 13 at 10:13

KKsMama,

Good for you to put your rock through the ringer. I wouldn't worry about a 1cm slab breaking when you whack it. Just about anything would break under those circumstances. The only thing I'd watch out for is large overhangs that are parallel to the grain of the rock. But with a 3 cm slab that rock will be pretty strong. Yes, the glittery bits are mica. Muscovite if they are silvery or biotite if they are black.

Keep us posted with how the templating and install goes - I'm sure you will since we are all following you vicariously!

Lucas,

Quartz is the mineral and quartizite is the rock that is made out of quartz. It's splitting hairs really, because as you point out the rock is made of 100% quartz. That's a beautiful rock, wow! Are you going to get it?

(PS - Nice job Ginny on describing how it forms!)

Gone South,

Oh yes, I fondly remember your cool riverbed rock. I am still hoping to get a table with that someday. Thanks for posting your follow up info and link.

Goodness, this thread has filled up fast - less than a month! I will start round 4 (for Peke).

Karin

I'm hoping this thread is still active, although old, because we are in the midst of a counter top decision. We love marble, and we are okay with the patina look. We found a slab labeled "afayron" that we really like (i'm thinking it afyron from turkey) and some stone yards have told me that this is a sugar marble and softer than say, carrara, and it will chip easily. the stone yard that's selling this slab tells me "marble is marble" and he doesn't know it's origin, but he buys everything from Italy. Any thoughts?

I would try posting on the most recent counter top thread which is still active. Here is a link:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2692150/countertop-geology-part-six-lets-talk-about-rocks-some-more

thank you.

I am surprised at how many people are looking at the same stone choices. I am wondering if this is location or age related or just coincidence. I am not doing a white kitchen and want a warm granite with a lot of movement. I am looking at Typhoon Bordeaux and River Bordeaux to go with walnut cabinets and a wood grain look porcelain floor in random plank. I have been to multiple slab yards and noticed that for these two granites the color and movement vary widely. Is there anything I need to be aware of with these slabs?

Just a heads up that all old GardenWeb threads used to automatically close after 150 posts, but now that is no longer true. But to keep things simple, if you have a new question use the most recent thread, which is #6 in the series.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2692150/countertop-geology-part-six-lets-talk-about-rocks-some-more

Thanks!

(PS - that's what Raebutt did and her question has been answered, phew!)

- Karin

My new granite countertop (1 month) has water stains. Now I am told it is quartzite. It has m

arks that are not scratches. They are coming from inside the stone I've been told. It was sold to me as granite, but acts like marble. Some of the "stains" disappear in a few days. Others are still there. What can I do? Manufacturer says sealing will help, but can't help with the marks already there. Do I have any recourse?

What article? And how is this misleading?

I missed Curly's post above. That rock is sandstone and it's porous. That's why there are water marks and stains. It definitely needs sealing and hopefully that got resolved.

Hi Karin, not sure if you are still replying but I clicked onto Rocks 102: Marble, Quartzite and Other Rocks in the Kitchen but it stated this article is no longer available. Can you please direct me to how to view it. Thanks from Australia!

The page didn't load for me either. But it wasn't an article, it was just a previous thread of countertop questions and comments. If you're looking for "countertop geology" articles, they are all here: https://usenaturalstone.org/author/k-kirk/

I am so confused and frazzled. Every time I think I have a handle on this durability and non porous thing, I choose a stone and after research find so many things potentially wrong with it.

I saw a beautiful slab of Macaubus Fantasy, but have since seen mention that it will stain.

I need something that is fairly indestructible. I live near the beach and have lots of company, but I am often away for a week at a time and not around to keep wiping the countertops. Even if I am home, I don't want to baby a countertop that will never grow up.

Which of these stones should I stay away from and which are definitely good?

Macaubus Fantasy "Quartzite"

Allure Quartzite (does practicality increase/decrease if it's leathered?)

River Blue Granite

Or are my only sure choices Taj Mahal or Sea Pearl?

I'd appreciate any feedback

I love love love my Taj Mahal for durability. We are in year 8 (and i followed this thread faithfully before ordering.) Originally I was headed towards marble, but my installer refused to put it in because of our high family usage and the number of customers that called to complain post-installation. We use food coloring, and have beets and raspberries without hesitation too. The only stain we had was juicy red raspberries that were left overnight, and a quick baking soda paste pulled it right out. I don't know about your other choices, but just wanted to send good vibes if you are pushed to Taj Mahal like me - I don't have any regrets. Good louck!

@eewm

Thank you for your response and the great pics. Especially the one of the Island in full use! It's reassuring to know you use it well and are still happy with it. And it looks gorgeous

One question as far as caring for it, do you seal it and how often?