Is this granite or something else?

[John Schreiber]

I found some stone kind of stuff at a garage sale. It appears to be cutoffs from a project. It’s 1 ¼” thick by 4” by 10 foot long. I could imagine a use for about 6 feet, but 30 feet of it cost $5 so I took it all home.

The surface is a variable mix of materials. Most is a grayish stuff which can be scratched with steel. There are also clear bits about ¼” or smaller which can’t be scratched. I don’t know if it is granite or some kind of artificial stone.

It is more flexible than I thought it would be. If I take a 6 foot length of it, I can bend one end as much as half an inch without too much effort. With some support, I think it will be excellent as a substrate for flattening plane bottoms or other “scary sharp” uses.

Any one know what it is or how to cut it?

[Chris Padilla]

Any pics? :)

[John Schreiber]

With the camera I've got (my cell phone) I couldn't get any decent detail. It is all polished on the top 4" side, polished on the one of the 1 1/4" sides and the polish goes back about an inch on the bottom 4" side. The remaining 1 1/4" side is about as rough as 60 grit paper and doesn't show any machining marks.

I figure it was from a counter top where the customer wanted less depth than the standard material.

[Greg Hines, MD]

It sounds like some kind of solid surface material like Corian from your description.

Doc

[Lee Koepke]

dont think granite would flex that much without failure.

a synthetic is more likely. either way, nice find. you really can never have too much stuff ya know ;)

[Joe Close]

How much does the 10' pc weigh? Granite weighs about .1235 lbs/cubic inch. That 1.25"x4"x120" should weigh in at about 74 lbs.

[Joe Chritz]

Silestone?

You could see samples at a local borg probably.

Joe

[Jim Becker]

Sounds like a backsplash section or a cut-off from a counter built of a "quartz" based composite material. Mostly stone, but bonded together with resins.

[Brandon Shew]

What Jim said is possible, but it's probably not Silestone. I had that in my last kitchen and it isn't very flexible. Silestone is 93% quartz w/ a resin binder. Most of the fake stone looking Silestone has a fair amount of quartz particles in it with smaller areas of the binder and it won't scratch w/ steel very easily either except possibly a really hardened steel.

[John Schreiber]

The Silestone suggestion above got me going in the right direction. It is some kind of quartz/polymer mix. They are made by a bunch of different companies, but I suspect it's Zodiac (http://www2.dupont.com/Surfaces/en_US/assets/flash/gallery_colors/colors.html?product=zodiaq&chipname=MeteorGrey). The color is just like the picture and the Zodiac is available in that thickness. Regardless, I think I know what it is now.

It looks like it would still be appropriate for flattening a plane sole. Not sure about how it would be for scary sharp. The soft parts of the "stone" might wear away before the quartz parts leaving an uneven surface. I'll experiment.

From the web, it looks like I need a diamond blade to cut it. Is there a cheaper way to do it? Perhaps a cold chisel?