Super pretty & nothing I have ever seen before. Are you using it?

Check out Stonewood Granite - I think it is a hit! When I saw it - it reminded me of petrified wood, so I tried a few combo words until I found something similar if not the same item!

Gorgeous! I want it for my bathrooms - Can't justify changing the kitchen!

Stonewood Granite

And if you go with it - you can get a matching phone case - LOLStone wood phone case

It is striking, but I would want it only in smaller applications, like bathroom vanities, as an accent. Having a whole kitchen of that granite could be overwhelming.

I love unusual stones and think this one is gorgeous! I remember seeing something similar to that when I picked out my granite. Wish I could remember the name. I just remember how unusual it was and it reminded me of wood. Thanks for sharing it.

You might be having trouble finding it because I am fairly sure it's not granite. My memory is fuzzy because it's been two years since our bathroom remodel, but I've seen tiles made from that same material, and it wasn't granite. It was something a lot more delicate -- not recommended for heavy-use areas.

I could be wrong but that looks like Onyx to me - the swirls appear more regular than Stonewood granite. If so, it is a rather delicate stone and is usually used as a decorative piece (Bar fronts, edges etc) rather than a "heavy use" piece (kitchen counter). I have seen bathroom basins made of onyx though.

Brown Onyx

Stonewood Granite

Thank you! Yes, I've purchased it!! I love it and think it is amazing. Honestly, it was out of the budget....so I didnt get the story from granite person. I kept walking past it and did not find anything I loved as much as it. I made all of my selections except for granite. My builder called me and said great news your granite came in budget. I said how can that be? I didn't pick kitchen. He said, they priced you for everything! So I called granite guy. He knew I really wanted it and priced it so I could afford it. He said anyone who loved the granite as I did deserved it :)

I can't wait to see your reveal, ourgeorgianhouse!

It looks much more like onyx than granite. If that's your thing, fine by me, but onyx doesn't perform like granite, especially in a kitchen. Get ready to etch.

Onyx or sandstone. Much too soft to use for kitchen counters.

It's definitely not granite, as other have said. My bet is sandstone, and the color bands show that it is porous. I would definitely submit a sample to a battery of tests for staining, etching, and scratching because I'm guessing it's fragile.

Good luck, but proceed with caution here.

OP, karin_m has posted extremely useful information on rocks / countertop material on GW. In the thread linked below, there is a part on the scratch test and the etch test which you may find useful.
Countertop Geology, Part 5: Marble, Quartzite and other Favorites

I don't know the level of usage this counter is going to get, so if it is an out of the way counter which is rarely used, it may be fine, but if it is in a heavy duty area, you may want to consider exchanging it? I fell in love many times with stones which were either too soft for kitchen use (marble / soapstone/ onyx) or too expensive so have gone through knowing that something gorgeous may not be the right one.

ourgeorgiahouse - You move quickly! I know the above advice is not what you want to hear (you made your decision and thought you were done), but do see if the granite person will allow you to do the tests and to select another stone if the tests fail. Is this for your beautiful island, the perimeter countertops, or both?

I am going to stop by the granite place on Monday to get some more information. I have had crappy granite in my last house it chipped constantly!!! Check out this picture! If we would have stayed in the house I would have replaced granite. The granite came with the house.

Karin_mt is the resident expert on stones. I agree with her, this looks like a sandstone or onyx. Proceed with caution. No one disagrees with you that this is gorgeous. It really is, but this type of material is typically used on walls. It can't take the daily wear and tear of countertops, either in the kitchen, bar or bathroom.

Call them on Monday and ask for a hold on the slab. This will give you time to test it and do some research. You will want the fabricator to chime in, too. I walked away from a beautiful slab of Tate, Georgia White Cherokee because I just couldn't be responsible for messing it up. Even after listening to all the marble lovers at GW, I ended up with a quartzite instead. I had to respect the stone.

Bring a flashlight and shine the light from behind the slab. If it is Onyx I think it will shine through. I've seen it backlit in pictures in bathrooms and bars. Too cool. There is a big slab of Onyx in the showroom of my local granite place that looks a lot like yours with the swirls.

However, it also looks very much like Palamino Quartzite. Google images showed some that looked really close to yours. If it is quartzite, that's good news. I think it would be okay for kitchen counters because I know many have used that material. But onyx or standstone I would say big mistake for kitchen.

But it is an awesome looking slab! I could see it being a real focal point on an island. Hope it work out georgiahouse.

I hope it works out too, but even if it's called quartzite, it isn't, sadly. Sandstone is the precursor to quartzite. If sandstone is buried deeply within the Earth's crust, heated, and pressurized, it will turn into quartzite. That process also erases the original layering in the rock. This rock still has the layering, so it's a sedimentary rock, not a metamorphic one.

When sandstone turns into quartzite, it gets less porous and stronger. Some sandstones can be bomber strong, like Wild Sea. But many are not, particularly the banded ones.

That said, I could be wrong. Do the tests (if possible) and you will know for sure.

Keep us posted - we're all curious now.

I saw this stone at Pental in Portland (OR) today. I stepped in between the slabs and took a picture of part of the slab since it was so cool-looking. Sorry I am not able to say what they were calling it - I had not read this thread until now.

Onyx in a bathroom, before and after:

Is the "after" the blurry one (shows as the first photo)? For a bathroom counter on which toothpaste flicks, soap and water are the main culprits, that's pretty drastic. Would you know how long between the before and after?

Help me out, what are you seeing in the before and after? It looks fine to me. I see onyx in bathrooms all the time around here : )

gr8daygw - in the first photo (which I THINK is the "after"), the reflection of the light is blurred. The swirls and patterns are less clearly defined as compared to the second. Unless the soap scum is the culprit and a good scrub will remove the patina.

Thank you for showing me the difference! The order of the before and after photos makes much more sense to me now. Thanks again.

No, the first post has the etches and scratches in the stone from the typical usage of bath products. The second is post polishing out those etches and scratches. Onyx is softer and more porous than marble. It doesn't belong on any but a decorative surface, not a wear surface. ''A good scrub'' with typical cleaning products will completely ruin the surface of onyx. You'll need to schedule several visits a year from a pro like Joe if you want to actually use it as a horizontal surface in a kitchen or bath.

It's so cool there are two of us on this forum looking at the same type slab! I am really thinking about all of the comments and concerns I will say it is really hard to walk away from something so beautiful!!! I am now thinking about just doing this on island and something solid color on counters. I will know more after tomorrow Now, am I to use broken glass on the edge of the slab or on the surface of slab?

If you loved it so much what about using it on your island as just part of the seating section. If you have seating at the island, put it about 16" deep along the edge of the island and butt it up against the other counter choice of the island. Make sense?

I was just looking at a website at their "inventory" of quartzite and saw one called Stonewood that looks a lot like this. I don't know what the site is. Here is link. http://69.162.158.32/agmweb/listProducts.aspx?q=Quartzite&Name=&Color=&Location=HH&Web=dgm&FilterBy=&page=3&perpage=16

I polished a travertine top because the customer's adult children spilled Margharitas on it. I wouldn't own a top that couldn't take a Marg spill or I'd be polishing my own tops all the time. A Marg could go over anywhere, seating area or not.

ourgeorgiahouse, You don't use broken glass, and you don't try to scratch the rock with the glass. It's vice versa. Take a glass tile or a glass bottle and rub it on the rough edge of the stone to see if the stone will scratch the glass. You'll have to press fairly hard, but not nearly hard enough to risk breaking the glass in your hand.

You'll also want to test for etching by putting lemon juice or vinegar on the surface of the stone. Lastly, test for staining. Try red wine or something like that.

Good luck!

Karin! Thank you ! I am laughing at myself! :)

We have an etch in my glass!!!!!!! I couldn't do the vinegar test because the slab was upright. I did pour it on and saw no issues. But I am not sure I did that part right. I so spoke with the same granite person. He assured me it was quartizite. He was happy to let me test it. :).

Seeing it again.... I still love it.

So it scratched the glass? (not etched, which is a different thing).

It is definitely not quartzite. Repeat after me: this is not quartzite. Your guy may be well intentioned and honest, but he's wrong.

If it did scratch the glass then it is either quartz sandstone or a silica-based onyx (as opposed to the calcite-based ones that would etch and are softer than glass). The pic you posted looks like sandstone, but the video that A2Gemini posted looked more like onyx.

I'd still be concerned with how porous and stainable it is. Any chance that you can get a little piece to bring home and test for staining?

Google "liesegang banding" and you'll see images that look very much like this. I've only ever seen this in sandstones, myself.

Alex, I'll take karin_mt for $500.00, please.

I do not think I can get piece of it. I will see if the fabricator has any laying around

I am just coming across this thread now and also considering stone wood (as you saw in my separate thread). Did you do any additional testing on this piece for durability? Thanks

I did the scratch test. And a folly vinegar test. BI went back and forth and back and forth. In the end, I loved it. I am only person who cooks and cleans in the kitchen, I am generally careful with my things. But I am also someone who loves a copper sink. :) my house won't be finished until November. So I won't be help as far as acid type items

My last granite was a safe neutral selected by the builder and within two years it was cracked and chipped.

This is called stonewood. It is quartzite, not granite. It has a few differing appearances, depending upon how it is cut

He, be sure to post a picture to this thread when it's done and let us know how it's holding up. They should have a piece for you after fabrication if you ask and at least you can test just how much you have to baby your counter.

Cool slab Clark!
Stonewood is sandstone, not quartzite. It's a sedimentary rock rather than a metamorphic rock. The dark brown lines are called mudcracks and those are places where the sand dried out and cracked. Then a layer of mud washed into the cracks. Then the whole thing got buried and compressed into solid form.

Quartzite is not too well understood within the decorative stone industry, although it is well understood by geologists. I am a geologist and I do some work with the stone industry to help clear up some of the confusion. It's important that salespeople give good info to customers so that customers can make an informed decision for their particular wants and needs.

Agree that some installed photos would be great to see!

karin-

How "soft" is this kind of sandstone? I was under the impression that sandstone is generally much less scratch-resistant that something like granite or quartzite.

That's a great question Kudzu, because there is potential for confusion there.

These sandstones are made mostly of quartz which is the same hardness as quartzite and a touch harder than the feldspar minerals which make up granite. So in terms of absolute hardness, sandstone is no problem.

That said, in some sandstones, the quartz grains are not well stuck together. So the mineral itself is not scratching, but they are separating from each other, which still leaves you with a scratch on your countertop. Some sandstones are so weakly stuck together that you can carve into them (like cave art). Others are bulletproof. You'd have to look at the specific type of rock to know, one way or another.

I can say for certain that Wild Sea is a sandstone that is very well-cemented (the technical term for this). That's the only one I've played with first hand.

The way to check this out would be to use the unpolished edge of a slab and go after it with an awl or the tip of a pocketknife. Try to gouge it and scratch it and see how well-connected the sand grains are. You should be able to get a feel for it by doing that.

Hope that helps!

karin-

Thanks...that was a very educational response, and one I'm sure will be valuable to a lot of people frequenting these forums.

This is actually a quartzite and not a granite. It's also called Palomino.

No, it's not quartzite. It's sandstone. This is already described upthread.