Cutting, matching, book-matching and making good panels.
13 answers are written under this subject. 13 answered so far.
Because the figure only runs one way. Slabs cut along the bed show lines across the face; the same slab cut across shows almost none. On a large wall or floor the direction has to be the same across every piece, and that decision is made when the slab is bought.
Whenever more than three slabs go into one surface. On a straight figure the eye is very good at finding the join that does not belong, and a dry-lay is the only way to catch it before the panels are numbered and cut.
Along the corridor, not across it. Lines running with the length of the space make the room read as longer; lines running across it make the room read as wider but the joints become the thing the eye lands on. Along the corridor is the usual answer for a wood look.
Book-matching is done on one slab: the slab is sawn, the two halves are opened out and set beside each other, and the figure mirrors and continues across the join. On a straight figure it is the difference between a wall and a set of panels.
With a diamond bridge saw and a gang saw for the slab, and by cutting in the direction the figure runs. A square edge takes a lot of speed out of the saw, and a clean cut is worth more time than a fast one on a stone this hard.
From one block, and with the same cut direction. Two floors from the same block will agree; two floors from two blocks will agree in colour and not in figure, because the bed is not a continuous sheet and no two blocks repeat exactly.
Cut the opening slightly larger than the sink and let the sink's flange cover the cut edge, and cut it in the workshop on the saw rather than on site. A cut-out in a marble top is a hole in a rigid plate, and it wants a clean edge and a supported rim.
Up to the width of the slab, which is 1600 millimetres at our standard size, and wider if the panels are cut to a pattern rather than mirrored in pairs. A wall wider than the slab is made from several slabs, and the layout has to be chosen on paper before anything is cut.
Yes, and it is how a feature wall is made: one slab is sawn, the two halves are opened out and set beside each other, and the figure mirrors and continues across the join. The pair is the product.
Both are done and the choice is about the room. Book-matched on a feature wall, where the symmetry is the point. Laid random on a floor, where the straight figure repeats anyway and a book-match on a floor would draw a grid the eye follows.
A mitred nosing is a fabrication decision and it is the one place where the stone decides: a mitre is two pieces of the same board meeting at an angle, and on a straight figure it has to be cut so that the lines continue around the corner rather than meeting in a chevron.
With a mitred internal corner cut from one slab, so the figure turns the corner instead of stopping at it. The corner is the single piece that decides whether a wrapped wall reads as one surface.
Because the figure is straight and the joint is a line, and a straight figure makes a line read. It is not a defect — it is a straight-grained stone being honest about being made of panels. What decides whether it looks good is the width of the joint and whether the lines on either side of it are at the same height.
Ordered by how many questions each one holds.