my local stone merchant H butterfields did a global stone display 3-4 years ago (roughly)
at the time they elected to half seal some flags with reiblock sandstone sealer
the results are plain to see so I will let the pictures do the talking
castle grey
modak rose
monsoon black
N.B. bottom half is sealed
mirage honed stone
raj green
as you can see some colours unsealed do not last the test of time
the worst offender being monsoon black
the best being the castle (kandla) grey
I know Kandala Grey (and all its pseudonyms) might not be the most exciting stone, but it's so bloody reliable.
You rarely get bad batches; the colour is fast and consistent; there's just enough of a riven texture to give it character; and it's not as porous as some of its more flashy counterparts, so it stays cleaner for longer.
Fascinating photies, Tony, and I suspect they may appear on the main website at some point over the winter.
Kandla Stone, like most of the Kota sandstones is extremely hard. The other most well known Kota stones being Autumn Brown and Raj Green. Our production manager always pulls his face when he is given kandla grey or raj green to cut.
I often think the sawn/honed grey has been stripped of its character but it does seem to be growing in popularity. As I always say, there's no acounting for taste!
Hello Dan
Not seen you on here in a long time. Hope that business is going well up there.
I would be very cautious about using honed Kandla grey as an exterior product. Its such a hard material and even when it just sawn it would be very slippy, but if you actually honed it then it would become like glass. We supplied some for an interior project a few years ago but for outside I wouldnt touch it with a barge pole.
Steve
Tony McC wrote:I often think the sawn/honed grey has been stripped of its character but it does seem to be growing in popularity. As I always say, there's no acounting for taste!
Taste aside, I think its meant to cater for the contemporary minimalistic market
