When is a honed finish better than a polished one?
Reference photographs. They show the material and the finish; they are not photographs of goods we made, and the colour on screen is not a colour-match.
The figures, and where each one comes from
| Finish | How it looks | Where it suits | What it asks for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polished | Deep colour, mirror reflection | Lobbies, reception counters, feature walls | Regular cleaning, and the scratches show |
| Honed | Soft matte, colour reads flatter | Wet rooms, corridors, floors with grit | Slip resistance matters more than reflection |
| Brushed | Texture with a directional grain | Feature walls, furniture, tactile surfaces | None in particular |
Why it behaves the way it does
The finish changes how the figure is read, not how the stone behaves. A polished surface reflects light off the crystal face and the figure looks deeper; a honed surface scatters it and the same figure looks flatter and wider. It is the same stone either way, and on a straight figure the difference is smaller than on a dramatic one — which is one of the arguments for this stone.
What these figures are, and what they are not
We supply polished and honed as standard. We do not publish a slip figure for any floor we supply, because we hold none.
If you are specifying this
We have not published products against this question yet. Send us the process, thickness and quantity and we will quote it against what we can actually form, rather than against a catalogue.
Honed when the floor is walked on wet or when a polished surface would show every scratch. Honed is matte, it hides wear and it is the right choice for a wet room or a busy corridor. Polished when the room wants depth of colour and the floor is not walked on wet.
The figures
| Finish | How it looks | Where it suits | What it asks for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polished | Deep colour, mirror reflection | Lobbies, reception counters, feature walls | Regular cleaning, and the scratches show |
| Honed | Soft matte, colour reads flatter | Wet rooms, corridors, floors with grit | Slip resistance matters more than reflection |
| Brushed | Texture with a directional grain | Feature walls, furniture, tactile surfaces | None in particular |
Why
The finish changes how the figure is read, not how the stone behaves. A polished surface reflects light off the crystal face and the figure looks deeper; a honed surface scatters it and the same figure looks flatter and wider. It is the same stone either way, and on a straight figure the difference is smaller than on a dramatic one — which is one of the arguments for this stone.
What these figures are, and what they are not
We supply polished and honed as standard. We do not publish a slip figure for any floor we supply, because we hold none.