Oh, here's the suspicious stone we found today.

Pretty sure Walker Zanger has a yard up near you?

They are always good with providing samples down here in So Cal. ...my go to stone yard

Yes, they do. Thanks for the suggestion!

MSI in Hayward give samples, although they don't always have them on hand for all of their stones.

Thank you!

Pretty slab. I've gotten samples from Da Vinci in San Carlos.

Integrated Resources in Brisbane - and they have an enormous selection.

I think I remember IRG in Dublin and Intertile in San Leandro having samples of the most granites. Some places would only have a sample if there was a small piece that broke off a slab. There was also a large warehouse in Livermore that I remember having a good selection. Marble Unlimited in Hayward gave me a 12"x12" marble tile and told me to go home and test food items (that's when I decided to not use marble - as much as I loved it!) They had some beautiful granite slabs too and though a smaller business, had the better customer service.

BTW, I felt like going to look at granite slabs was like going to an art museum. I would slowly walk from slab to slab with my mouth agape, in awe at the beauty!

Thank you all!

I'd second the vote for IRG in Brisbane -- enormous selection, and they were very happy to give me samples of anything I wanted (in this case, quartize and marble) to test at home. Additionally, not only did they give samples, but when I decided that wanted honed quartzite and they only had polished in stock, they sent a quartize sample to Fox Marble in SSF (a company I was considering as a fabricator), and Fox honed the sample and mailed it to me!

Thanks. IRG in Brisbane gave us samples of marble and granite, but refused to provide samples of anything labeled quartzite. We ultimately bought our carrara marble slab from daltile in San Leandro as it was both cheaper and our GC's preference.

That looks a LOT like the "Bardiglio" I installed in my last kitchen. I got it at All-Natural in SJ and of course they provided a sample. It was also EXTREMELY inexpensive. Don't pay quartzite prices for it! :)

(If it's the same, it's a great stone. Etchy, sure although it doesn't show with all the swirlies on a honed surface, but doesn't stain.)

I can't believe that IRG didn't give you any samples! I worked with a woman named Alexis, who was great -- she just grabbed a hammer and whacked a corner off any slab that I wanted.

I don't remember all that slab places I went to, but all would do samples, and none would do samples of the really expensive or fragile stuff.

But really, if this stuff is the marble, it's not expensive and it's not fragile.

@bphansen -- I remember IRG would just whack the slabs like that.... pretty shocking the first time you see it.

I have seen plenty of marbles labeled as quartzite... and a quick google search showed a similar looking stone with the same name being a marble.

Arizona Tile has a nice write-up on the quarry -- they may have some in stock in their locations in the East Bay.
http://www.arizonatile.com/BARDIGLIO-P1286.aspx

Thanks everyone. This thread is a few months old. We have purchased our slab already--went with carrara from daltile.

The slab pictured above was very similar to some slabs labeled as a marble at IRG and they did give us a sample; it definitely etched. I wasn't surprised since, as I indicated in my first post, my googling suggested that it was a marble. I can't remember the price at IRG, but it was significantly higher than cararra from daltile (around twice as much I think) and we decided we were not willing to pay more for a stone that had the same characteristics as carrara. Dh liked the darker stone, but not enough to pay more for it. I liked the carrara so I was satisfied. And we were both d.o.n.e. looking.

As far as getting samples, as detailed above, I ran into places that would not provide any samples of any kind and places that would only sample some stones. Our sales person at IRG was very clear that they would not provide a sample of anything labeled a quartzite. He also refused to provide a sample of a slate remnant we were considering for a different project. He did cheerfully give us samples of stones labeled as granites or marbles.

The only suggestion I can think of for anyone else reading this is to call ahead to places and ask if they provide samples, because it is quite a waste of time to go if they won't (at least if you need a sample to decide, which I did).