About Natural Sandstone, a general guide.

Sandstones are sedimentary stones, created originally millions of years ago from the sediment laid down on the floor of prehistoric seas and lakes. The vast passage of time and geological pressures combine to create a wonderful range of colourful, hard wearing and characterful stones.

Indian Sandstone for House Signs

Indian Sandstone and Limestone are a recent addition to the UK. market. And have only been widely available for the last four or five years. The quality of the stone is therefore, an unknown factor to most people.
We have been using these stones for several years for our house signs and commemorative plaques and have found the quality the equal to and sometimes superior to many British stones. The sandstones in particular, have a very tight grain and when polished have a smooth even finish.
Indian sandstones tend to be much harder than their English counterparts. The cream coloured sandstones we used for our house signs were much harder than stones such as Derby stone or Yorkstone which are probably the nearest equivalent British stones.

We also use Gold sandstone which is an excellent match for English Cotwswold or Bathstone types.

The Nature of Sandstone

Although a harder stone to engrave, this does not mean they are appreciably harder wearing than their English counterparts, just harder to work!
Like all sandstone, Indian sandstones are particularly good at resisting the effects of wind and rain and abrasion. This makes them superb stones for among other things house signs engraved paving stones and memorial plaques.
Though fine grained these tend not to be as fine grained as Yorkstone. The edges of the lettering and engraving tends not to be quite as sharp with more of a tendency to show the sandy character of the stone.
This effect is almost microscopic and cannot be seen from a few feet away.

Far from detracting from the finish of the engraving this actually seems to be a positive advantage on house signs where the engraving is left unpainted. The slightly less defined edges seem to highlight the finished engraving making it more visible and easy to read from a distance.
If you choose to purchase a sandstone house sign but would like the lettering painted this is not a problem, we simply take care to choose a finer grained piece of stone.
The colouring of Indian sandstones can vary, as can any natural stone. We select the stone for to be as consistant as possible and in practice there is only slight variation in the signs we supply.

Sandstones are sedimentary stones, created originally millions of years ago from the sediment laid down on the floor of prehistoric seas, so you should expect some variation in the shading and colour of the stone and an occasional seashell!

Choosing your Sandstone Wisely!

Not all sandstone is suitable for engraving, some are too varied in colour, some are simple too coarse a grain and will not show up the lettering clearly.

If you are looking to commission a new stone house sign or a smart commemorative plaque you should bear this in mind.

Your professional engraver will have experience in choosing the right type of sandstone. Talk to him or her, if they are anything like me they will love to talk about different types of stone!