Marble price?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Bought an offcut of 'white' marble with blue veins running through it - the sort you see in Victorian houses on fireplaces and wash stands, etc. It's about 1800 x 300 x 30mm. Polished on one face, some chips on edges and corners. How much should I have paid? They started out at silly money then came down rapidly as I walked away.

What I actually need is two sections 60 x 30 x 965mm to replace broken and/or missing bits in a fireplace. Hope I can cut it ok with my wet tile cutter, help, and lots of care.

At the top of these pillars there should be a sort of plinth with curved edges on two sides (separate part). I've never attempted to carve stone before - any tips?

[The Natural Philosopher]

How much do you want?..still got about 1/3rd of a tonne of it ex a poncy city office strip out..

wet tile cutter cuts it fine. Its soft..

marble needs to be cut with a dianmod abrasve really. I suppose a hammer and chisel would just about work.

[Brian Gaff]

It does seem to chip though, if you drop things on it I used to find. Brian

[Nick]

Marble is relatively soft and porous. I hesitate to say this but an angle grinder is a good tool for the job. Diamond cutting disc would be ideal, otherwise several ordinary type cutting discs. IIRC discs for metal will cut stone, but not vice versa. Please wear protective gear. I have had the unfortunate experience of a cutting disc disintegrating. Not a fun thing I can assure you. Mark it out carefully using a pencil or whiteboard (wipeoff) marker. Make several shallow cuts, don't try to do it in one hit. You can also cut curves. Mark it out as above. Remove as much waste as possible with AG. Smooth and polish with abrasives and much elbow grease. Mouldings can be created with various grades of slipstones, purposely shaped stones, decent files and again, much elbow grease. I am very fortunate that I have a longstanding tenant who is a stonemason. I've watched him work over the last many years and we speak a lot. What he does interests me. Most of his donkey work is done on dedicated machinery but I have seen what can be achieved by hand, and it can be astounding. This includes skillful work with an AG. Being soft & porous, marble stains very readily. Make sure it is well sealed. Sealers are available, can send some names if you wish. You won't want to be sniffing it for too long. HTH Nick.

[Dave Liquorice]

Donno have a look on the Architectral Salvage sites. Sounds to me as if the orginal price was the mugs one and would be acceptable for a lump in good condition but the sellers knew they'd be lucky to find a mug and took what they could get...

I think for the initial "rough size" cuts you'd be better of with diamond blade in an angle grinder. And it might be better to hire a

10 or 12" jobbie than try and use a "DIY" 5" one due to the thickness of the material. Then use the tile saw (will it cope with 30 mm?) for the final size cuts to the smaller, more manageable, lumps.

[mark]

I bought 20 sq.m of 20mm marble offcuts from a local stone place, they make kitchen worktops, gravestones, fireplaces etc. Various colours, mostly white/cream and some granite. Cost 100

It cuts easily with an angle grinder with a diamond blade. A 9" blade is better than a 4.5" as it is less prone to wobbling. With the softer marbles you need to be very slow towards the end of the cut or it will 'break out' unevenly. Carrera marble, pure white with smokey grey streaks is even soft enough to cut with a pressure washer as I found out when cleaning some up. On dark marble/grantite I used a strip of masking tape and drew the cut line on than, otherwise its hard to see.

I used an overhead water bath diamond tile cutter for cutting more precise shapes for a granite/marble star for centrepiece of the conservatory floor. Cutting granite is a slow noisy process. So instead of me standing there for ages I attached a rope to the handle, the rope then went over something of the same height with a paint tin on the end weighted to give the right amount of pull on the handle. I set it to about 5mins per cut and got on with something else.

mark

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That sounds like the stuff I have. Cut it down to the approximate length easily with my 9" Lidl angle grinder and diamond blade. Cut the bits I needed to size using my wet tile cutter - slow job as it was thicker than the height of the blade, so needed two passes. But produced a nice clean cut.