Hand Finishes

Tooled finishes from hand-held chisels are nearly a lost art form. We offer an exquisite selection of handcrafted finishes - thanks to the relationships we have cultivated with stone sculptors, artists and masons in China.

Our finishes range from standard polished and honed surfaces to those that bear the mark of the stonecutter’s virtuosity - the pineapple, mushroom, lychee, elegant adze and rustic pitched textures.

Whether it is a honed paving pattern or a thick pillowed cladding to match the craftwork and patina of 100-year old local sandstone, our finishes add a value that cannot be affordably duplicated in this country.

The ability of a stone to take and hold a finish is determined by the texture, structure, hardness, density and mineral composition of the specific stone.

Limestone articulates the full range of finishes beautifully. Sandstone, due to its softness, tends to mute and soften the effect. Granites and basalt show their finishes differently depending on their color matrix and grain size.

Additionally, not all of the finishes are appropriate for all uses; many of the heavily textured finishes are suitable only for use in vertical applications. Additional stone thickness is required to stand up to the more aggressive finishes.

For interior applications, polished and honed surfaces tend to be the more common. For elegant solutions to interior pavers or vertical veneers, consider the adze, bush hammered or fine lychee finishes. A combination of finishes can add an additional degree of sophistication to the overall design scheme.  

Finishes also help solve design challenges, such as using the hand tooled lychee finish to add an improved friction coefficient to a pedestrian area.

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