There are materials to choose from. Pick what you love.
When time permits this page will include photographs of various materials. For the time being, many of the photos in the Gallery section have captions that include the name of the material.
What's in a name?
Well, this is the topic that got me started on this page. Twice today I've tried to explain to a customer what name applied to a particular granite. So here goes...
First, when we are talking about a material, we try to stick with the trade name used by the company that quarries it. Fortunately, most materials have one name that applies to one material.
Sometimes there are multiple trade names that apply to the same material. For example, "Vermilion", "Morning Rose" and "North American Pink" all refer to the same granite quarried by Nelson Granite Company in Vermilion Bay, Ontario. This is still fairly easy.
In other instances, the same name is used to refer to granites from a wide range of quarries, often on different continents. For example, "China Jet Black" refers to black granite quarried in China, without being specific where it was quarried. "Absolute Black" may refer China Jet Black but it may also refer to materials with a similar appearance from India, Africa, or South America.
The following list covers most of the materials we use:
"Georgia Gray" is a good place to start. Keystone Blue is the only Georgia gray granite we sell to retail customers because it's the best material available from among the dozens of quarries in the Elberton Ga area, all of whom quarry the familiar blue/gray granite. See below for what I mean by "best". Many monument companies refer to it as simply "Georgia Gray". Others buy from a particular source and use the trade name of that source. Still others may buy from a manufacturer who does not own a quarry and who re-christens the granite he sells just to put a brand on it. And finally, there are retailers who invent their own names for the granite, to our consternation.
"Sunset Red" is also called "Texas Red", probably because it's quarried in Texas.
"Autumn Rose" used to be known, officially or not, as "Oklahoma Tweed" and I still hear people in the industry refer to it as "Tweed"
"Mahogany"...ok, maybe it's time to go get a glass of water as this rant keeps going. There are two companies with quarries in Milbank, SD that quarry a beautiful brownish granite that I always recommend when customers ask for something that looks outdoorsy. Cold Spring Granite Co refers to their primary material as "Carnelian" and other names such as "Rustic Mahogany" to refer to variegated granite from the same quarry. Dakota Granite Company applies an array of names to their materials based on the degree to which it is variegated. Complicating matters, slightly, is the fact that although the term "Dakota Mahogany" has traditionally been used to describe any mahogany granite quarried in South Dakota, the name is a trademark of Dakota Granite Company. So we try to use the term "American Mahogany" for all of it, since we buy from both sources and can't always tell the granites apart. We do occasionally slip and use the trademarked term but we try to make clear that we're not representing something as having come from one source or the other, we're just trying to distinguish it from...
"Canadian Mahogany", which commonly sells under the trade name "Red Deer Brown".
And here is a good spot for you to refill your water cause I'm diverging again.
There are a few companies that quarry monumental granite and sell the raw blocks but don't cut them into finished monuments. There are several companies who operate both quarries and finishing plants; they sell raw blocks as well as finished monuments. There are also host of companies (like ours) who don't own quarries, but buy blocks of raw granite then saw, polish, mill, chip, shape, and turn them into finished monuments. Most of the companies who operate both quarries and manufacturing plants also buy blocks from quarries they don't own and sell finished monuments in those materials. And there's a practice in the industry for nearby manufacturers to sell to each other to fill the needs of one another's customers. And finally, there are some imported granites whose appearance is very similar but whose availability is unpredictable, which leads manufacturers to label a family of similar granites with a single trade name so they can keep the supply moving. So there's plenty of opportunity for names to get jumbled.
"Flash Black" is a popular granite that we sell. The name refers not to a quarry but to a family of similar-looking granites quarried in Africa. A piece of Flash Black purchased today may differ noticeably from a piece purchased ten years ago. In cases like this, it's impossible for us to know precisely what the next piece we buy is going to look like. We usually show the customer a piece that was purchased recently and assure them that their piece will look pretty close to that piece. We're batting a thousand on that approach over the last 20 years--we've never had a complaint about the granite, perhaps because even if a monument turns out to be a little different in color than what was expected, it's still beautiful.
There are a variety of black granites on the market whose constituent minerals are all or almost all black, and these are commonly referred to as "Jet Black" or some variation thereof. We try to use a name that narrows it down to the extent we are able but typically we limit it to "China Black", "India Black" (which we don't offer much) or the catch-all "USA Jet Black" (where "USA" means that it's overseas granite that's manufactured in the USA; monuments made from India Black or China Black are typically finished in those countries, labor costs being what they are; there is no Jet Black granite quarried in the USA for the monument market). If you want the blackest Jet Black granite available, we'll get it from China and call it China Black. If your preference is for a Jet Black granite manufactured in the United States, we'll buy a piece or pieces from a supplier to meet your needs. The supplier may attach a trade name to it (Galaxy, Colonial, Absolute, Nero, Zimbabwe, etc) but we don't really care where it came from as long as it's the color our customer likes; and we label it "USA Jet Black".
First, when we are talking about a material, we try to stick with the trade name used by the company that quarries it. Fortunately, most materials have one name that applies to one material.
Sometimes there are multiple trade names that apply to the same material. For example, "Vermilion", "Morning Rose" and "North American Pink" all refer to the same granite quarried by Nelson Granite Company in Vermilion Bay, Ontario. This is still fairly easy.
In other instances, the same name is used to refer to granites from a wide range of quarries, often on different continents. For example, "China Jet Black" refers to black granite quarried in China, without being specific where it was quarried. "Absolute Black" may refer China Jet Black but it may also refer to materials with a similar appearance from India, Africa, or South America.
The following list covers most of the materials we use:
"Georgia Gray" is a good place to start. Keystone Blue is the only Georgia gray granite we sell to retail customers because it's the best material available from among the dozens of quarries in the Elberton Ga area, all of whom quarry the familiar blue/gray granite. See below for what I mean by "best". Many monument companies refer to it as simply "Georgia Gray". Others buy from a particular source and use the trade name of that source. Still others may buy from a manufacturer who does not own a quarry and who re-christens the granite he sells just to put a brand on it. And finally, there are retailers who invent their own names for the granite, to our consternation.
"Sunset Red" is also called "Texas Red", probably because it's quarried in Texas.
"Autumn Rose" used to be known, officially or not, as "Oklahoma Tweed" and I still hear people in the industry refer to it as "Tweed"
"Mahogany"...ok, maybe it's time to go get a glass of water as this rant keeps going. There are two companies with quarries in Milbank, SD that quarry a beautiful brownish granite that I always recommend when customers ask for something that looks outdoorsy. Cold Spring Granite Co refers to their primary material as "Carnelian" and other names such as "Rustic Mahogany" to refer to variegated granite from the same quarry. Dakota Granite Company applies an array of names to their materials based on the degree to which it is variegated. Complicating matters, slightly, is the fact that although the term "Dakota Mahogany" has traditionally been used to describe any mahogany granite quarried in South Dakota, the name is a trademark of Dakota Granite Company. So we try to use the term "American Mahogany" for all of it, since we buy from both sources and can't always tell the granites apart. We do occasionally slip and use the trademarked term but we try to make clear that we're not representing something as having come from one source or the other, we're just trying to distinguish it from...
"Canadian Mahogany", which commonly sells under the trade name "Red Deer Brown".
And here is a good spot for you to refill your water cause I'm diverging again.
There are a few companies that quarry monumental granite and sell the raw blocks but don't cut them into finished monuments. There are several companies who operate both quarries and finishing plants; they sell raw blocks as well as finished monuments. There are also host of companies (like ours) who don't own quarries, but buy blocks of raw granite then saw, polish, mill, chip, shape, and turn them into finished monuments. Most of the companies who operate both quarries and manufacturing plants also buy blocks from quarries they don't own and sell finished monuments in those materials. And there's a practice in the industry for nearby manufacturers to sell to each other to fill the needs of one another's customers. And finally, there are some imported granites whose appearance is very similar but whose availability is unpredictable, which leads manufacturers to label a family of similar granites with a single trade name so they can keep the supply moving. So there's plenty of opportunity for names to get jumbled.
"Flash Black" is a popular granite that we sell. The name refers not to a quarry but to a family of similar-looking granites quarried in Africa. A piece of Flash Black purchased today may differ noticeably from a piece purchased ten years ago. In cases like this, it's impossible for us to know precisely what the next piece we buy is going to look like. We usually show the customer a piece that was purchased recently and assure them that their piece will look pretty close to that piece. We're batting a thousand on that approach over the last 20 years--we've never had a complaint about the granite, perhaps because even if a monument turns out to be a little different in color than what was expected, it's still beautiful.
There are a variety of black granites on the market whose constituent minerals are all or almost all black, and these are commonly referred to as "Jet Black" or some variation thereof. We try to use a name that narrows it down to the extent we are able but typically we limit it to "China Black", "India Black" (which we don't offer much) or the catch-all "USA Jet Black" (where "USA" means that it's overseas granite that's manufactured in the USA; monuments made from India Black or China Black are typically finished in those countries, labor costs being what they are; there is no Jet Black granite quarried in the USA for the monument market). If you want the blackest Jet Black granite available, we'll get it from China and call it China Black. If your preference is for a Jet Black granite manufactured in the United States, we'll buy a piece or pieces from a supplier to meet your needs. The supplier may attach a trade name to it (Galaxy, Colonial, Absolute, Nero, Zimbabwe, etc) but we don't really care where it came from as long as it's the color our customer likes; and we label it "USA Jet Black".