Help me add a flame finish to granite.
November 8, 2007 6:27 PM Subscribe
Adding flame finish to granite block.
I have some granite steps that we had the tops flame finished on. The riser portion we chose not to. They have chipped slightly and I'm thinking they would look better with a flame finish. I've been told that I can just take an oxy-acetylene torch with a rosebud tip and heat up the face until it spalls to get the finish. I'm handy with a torch and have a large oxy-acetylene rig but I'm worried about ruining the steps. Is it as easy as I've been told. Do I dare try it? My wife will kill me if they end up looking worse. We live about 300 miles from anybody who knows how to do this so it will cost plenty to get someone up here to do it.
I have some granite steps that we had the tops flame finished on. The riser portion we chose not to. They have chipped slightly and I'm thinking they would look better with a flame finish. I've been told that I can just take an oxy-acetylene torch with a rosebud tip and heat up the face until it spalls to get the finish. I'm handy with a torch and have a large oxy-acetylene rig but I'm worried about ruining the steps. Is it as easy as I've been told. Do I dare try it? My wife will kill me if they end up looking worse. We live about 300 miles from anybody who knows how to do this so it will cost plenty to get someone up here to do it.
Sand or shot blasting might be an option to create a consolidating texture without risking structural damage to the stair case.
posted by hortense at 8:35 PM on November 8, 2007
posted by hortense at 8:35 PM on November 8, 2007
Granite is feldspar fusing quartz and some times mica, a mixture of crystals. Marble is calcium carbonate, tiny crystals all the same . marble=granite, not.
posted by hortense at 8:47 PM on November 8, 2007
posted by hortense at 8:47 PM on November 8, 2007
No, I know they are not the same. I was stating that in my comment I had mistakingly used the word marble instead of granite.
posted by 517 at 8:56 PM on November 8, 2007
posted by 517 at 8:56 PM on November 8, 2007
s/marble/granite/
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:47 PM on November 8, 2007
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:47 PM on November 8, 2007
Have you ever played with a beer bottle and a propane torch?
All you have to do is touch the flame to the bottle and it will shatter. If you do decide to do this, get a nice separate slab of marble to test the shattering time on
517, "flaming" is quite a common finish for stone, and generally won't have too much of a detrimental impact on the material, for stone material that actually can be flamed--it's unadvisable for some. If the treads of the steps are already flamed, I'd assume that the granite does fine with it.
However, your torch might have produce a different enough effect from the stone shop's torch that it's probably worth it to test it first. Maybe check with a stone company to see if you can get an unflamed sample of your material first and try it out on that before going at it on your steps. A stone sample, like a 4x4 tile or something, would probably be free or have minimal cost. Or if you have some leftover material (or maybe your installer does) from the original installation, you could try it with that.
I've had projects where we specified flame finishes on a couple faces of stone pieces and planned on field-flaming other sides as necessary, much in the manner that you describe, with a torch and all. Our stone supplier mentioned advised us that our flaming might not look quite like their flaming.
posted by LionIndex at 8:19 AM on November 9, 2007
All you have to do is touch the flame to the bottle and it will shatter. If you do decide to do this, get a nice separate slab of marble to test the shattering time on
517, "flaming" is quite a common finish for stone, and generally won't have too much of a detrimental impact on the material, for stone material that actually can be flamed--it's unadvisable for some. If the treads of the steps are already flamed, I'd assume that the granite does fine with it.
However, your torch might have produce a different enough effect from the stone shop's torch that it's probably worth it to test it first. Maybe check with a stone company to see if you can get an unflamed sample of your material first and try it out on that before going at it on your steps. A stone sample, like a 4x4 tile or something, would probably be free or have minimal cost. Or if you have some leftover material (or maybe your installer does) from the original installation, you could try it with that.
I've had projects where we specified flame finishes on a couple faces of stone pieces and planned on field-flaming other sides as necessary, much in the manner that you describe, with a torch and all. Our stone supplier mentioned advised us that our flaming might not look quite like their flaming.
posted by LionIndex at 8:19 AM on November 9, 2007
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All you have to do is touch the flame to the bottle and it will shatter. If you do decide to do this, get a nice separate slab of marble to test the shattering time on.
posted by 517 at 7:36 PM on November 8, 2007