About Natural Granite

Granite is becoming increasingly popular for house names, memorials and of course kitchens, but do you know what granite really is? Granite a type of extremely hard rock. Granite is Igneous rock formed from ancient primordial volcanic activity.
Molten hot lava, compressed and moulded by unimaginable tons of geological pressure combine over millions of years to create this stunningly beautiful and incredibly hard stone.

This magical rock is dug or blasted from the ground or hacked from the side of mountains in huge blocks in a process called quarrying. The quarried block of stone is then cut, sliced, rather like a huge loaf of bread, and them ground and polished to make the material that we know as granite.

It is this polishing process that allows us to appreciate the wonderful colours and patterns inherent in these amazing stones. Granite comes in a wonderful array of colours from all around the world. Reds Blues, green and grey, speckled and plain, some even with swirling marble-like patterns. Of them all for house signs and memorial stones Absoluto black granite reigns supreme!
Granite’s are superbly hard, almost impervious to erosion and weathering. Natural Granite’s are even resistant to the corrosive effects of acid attack!

Beware however the pretend, man-made Granite, these are nowhere near as hard as the real thing and will fade and whiten in the sun! They should not be used for outdoor purposes and never ever, for memorial stones!

These attributes make real Granite an ideal choice of natural material for use as house name plaques and house number signs. Our Granite range of house signs were made from the best quality Natural Absoluto black granite.

The polished finish on Granite is very tough indeed, it is possible to scratch granite but you have to work at it! This example of a simple house number nicely shows not only the brilliantly polished face but also the original rock nature of the stone.

The natural grain of this particular granite is very fine and enables the engraving of detailed images and artwork.
The high, glass-like polish of granite makes it the ideal natural material for engraving. For this reason it is one of the few natural materials used for laser engraving and photo etching, though for house name plaques the finish with this type of engraving, is somewhat shallow not really legible from any distance.