What is Doctored Stone?
Ever ask yourself, "What are those weird 'ghost stains' and 'ghost rings' on my granite countertops”? If so, you may be the victim of stone doctoring.
So, what is “stone doctoring”?
Let’s take it one step at a time and start from the official definition of the word, doctoring.
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the informal definition of doctoring is:
a.) To adapt or modify for a desired end by alteration or special treatment <doctored the play to suit the audience> <the drink was doctored>
b.) To alter deceptively <accused of doctoring the election returns>”
A cross-check of the same word (again, its informal meaning) on Dictionary.com not surprisingly confirms the one given by Merriam-Webster:
“To repair, especially in a makeshift manner; rig.”
And also:
a.) To falsify or change in such a way as to make favorable to oneself: doctored the evidence.
b.) To add ingredients so as to improve or conceal the taste, appearance, or quality of: doctor the soup with a dash of sherry. See Synonyms at adulterate.”
In conclusion, the informal meaning of the word, doctoring is an alteration, implemented in many different ways, of the original state of something that could be either tangible or intangible.
It is now time to relate the understanding of this definition to the world of stone.
Taken in its wider interpretation, whatever happens to any dimensional stone from the moment it’s taken out of the quarry all the way to when it is installed as a final product in somebody’s dwelling could be considered doctoring. After all, the processing of cutting a block into slabs or into strips is an alteration of the original state of the stone. The state of the raw slab or strip is even more altered when processed into a finished slab (ground and polished on one of its faces) or into stone tiles ready to be installed. The finished slab gets further altered in the fabrication shop by being cut into shape to fit the project at hand.
Could all this be considered as doctoring of the stone? Not really; this kind of alteration should be more properly considered as processing. It’s actually a necessity; without it, stone could not be used other than as ornamental boulders in somebody’s front yard.
This essay is not about stone processing, though. It is about stone doctoring, which may not be perceived as innocent and necessary as stone processing. But is doctoring of stone a bad thing all the time? And if not, where do we draw the line?
Let’s start by saying that, as a matter of fact, stone doctoring is not a bad thing most of the time. The doctoring of stone finds its origins back in history ever since mankind started developing waxes, glues and fillers and actually, even before then. In fact, there’s reported proof that the ancient Romans were filling the natural holes of travertine for certain indoor installations. Obviously, since the filler would not cure into a hard material such as Portland cement for example, the filler that they used in those days would not last long.
With the introduction of glues and other filling materials that would cure into a hard substance, stone doctoring began to take off and become more and more popular. Beautiful class C-D marble that could not be sold because of fractured matrix and large fissures that in many cases were going through and through, was strengthened by the glue or the filler. Now, is there anything wrong with that?
This writer doesn’t see anything wrong and, actually, he sees everything right with that kind of doctoring. After all, without it, consumers would have been deprived of the joy of owning those kinds of gorgeous but unpractical stones!
Waxes also began to appear and have been used to doctor natural stone to make it appear more appealing, but this author has a few reservations about this. In fact, unless used on marble figurines and other objects that would not be subjected to any kind of traffic, these special waxes would wear down and then out, thus revealing the real appearance of the bare stone surface underneath. That was the first glimpse of a type of doctoring that would leave many questions unanswered about business ethics and downright legality.
As chemistry progressed, more suitable materials became available to doctor natural stone: more appropriate fillers for travertine, epoxy glues, polyester glues, and so on. All of these materials were – and still are – used to improve the appearance of stone in a permanent way. Once again, with a few rare reservations, only positive can be seen in this kinds of doctoring.
One of the most recent doctoring is the resining of many mercantile granite slabs. The procedure is not really recent, but with the new application techniques of the resin, and the ever-increasing popularity the process is getting for its obvious advantages, it can be considered recent. Most likely, the resin itself is not the same as the one of yesteryear.
What’s the scope of resining mercantile granite slabs?
Depending on the material, the scope can vary. For instance, in the case of a naturally, extensively fractured material, the resining process, which can go as deeply as the bottom of the slab, is meant mostly to keep the whole slab together, and then to fill the rather large fissures (fractures is a better definition, due to the size they can reach) with a material that, once processed and polished with the rest of the treated slab will appear rather natural and could even be perceived (or accepted) as a natural part of the stone. In many cases, these kinds of very appealing mercantile granites are so-called exotic stones that would stand very little chance of being processed and, consequently, sold and installed in somebody’s dwelling without being resined.
Another reason for resining mercantile granite slabs is to fill most of the surface’s natural fissures and chips which in certain stones can be rather extensive and detract from the overall uniformity of the polished surface. The resining will definitely upgrade the final look of the finished slab. In some other cases, the resin is applied to upgrade low-grade slabs. In other words, a top-grade slab of the material wouldn’t be resined, while a lower-grade would, in order to bring that slab up to par with the top-grade ones. This writer really doesn’t know if he’s comfortable with this particular instance, but he also doesn’t think that there’s much that can be done about it and, after all, it’s hard to establish if the final user of that slab can be considered cheated.
Finally, another reason to resin certain mercantile granites is the solidification of its rather unstable texture, at least on its surface. Certain mercantile granites, such as garnet gneiss are gritty and, in certain spots of their structure, the grit could become loose. That’s certainly not a good feature, and the resining takes care of that in a permanent way. As a welcome by-performance, the resining process also appears to dramatically reduce the natural absorbency rate of many mercantile granites, in many cases to the point that the application of an impregnating sealer that would have been highly recommendable if the stones were left in their natural state, will not be required any longer.
Now, is there anything wrong with this kind of doctoring of natural stone if done properly?
Not really. Resining should be looked at as an overall upgrade of the performance of many stones and it can’t be considered as a malicious alteration. First, customers are easily made aware of the resining process. Actually many fabricators proudly use the information to assure their customers that, by predominately using resined slabs, the final products delivered into their homes or places of business will be top notch. And, second and most important, the process is permanent.
Therefore, if doctoring produces a permanent result and is duly disclosed to the customer, there’s nothing wrong with it: What you see is what you get! Not only that, but the resined product will perform better overall than its non-resined counterpart in most instances.
The only possible negatives could be:
1. The resining process somehow darkens the lighter-colored mercantile granite. That is not a problem per se, because, after all, customers only see the resined slab and choose the color it is now, not the color it would have been in its (sight unseen) natural state. Where the problem can arise is the fact that some times the processing of the edges of some of those resined mercantile granites will not match the darker shade of color of the surface; it will always be a notch or two lighter. Regardless of the fact that in most instances it’s barely noticeable, good fabricators should have enough tricks in their bag to even things out.
2. The majority of mercantile granites are heat-proof in their natural state. When the slab is resined, this feature could become iffy. In most cases, even if one puts a hot pot straight from the stove onto the top, nothing will happen, for the percentage of the resin exposed on the surface is minimal (filling of the little pits and fissures); however, in the case of a heavily resined exotic stone, more resin can be flush with the surface, and that material (epoxy resin), while heat-resistant, can’t be rated as heat-proof. The real problem is if the resin does get damaged by the exposure to excessive and prolonged heat, it cannot be repaired. However, these are indeed rare and extreme occurrences and it’s never a good idea to put a hot pot of food on a countertop and let it sit there for a long time. Even non-resined mercantile granite –depending on factors like the thickness of the slab, their degree of fragility, the possible presence of invisible below-surface fracture lines, etc. – while not damaged on the surface, could eventually crack because of the prolonged exposure to intensive heat.
3. Some operators maintain that resin is photosensitive and, because of that, certain slabs may discolor when exposed to UV rays. Further investigation within the stone fabrication community seems to confirm that, at least to a certain extent. This could lead to a discoloration of the slab when installed on a kitchen countertop, part of which could be near a large window on the south side of the house. In the opinion of this writer such possibility is quite debatable, though. In fact, in the majority of the instances the quantity of resin surfacing on a slab is miniscule, and its possible color alteration should not be significant to the point of being noticeable. Furthermore, it could even be more probable that the stone itself is photosensitive because of certain minerals in its composition – not an uncommon occurrence. Because of that, the slab could discolor when exposed for long periods of time to UV radiation, whether or not it was resined.
Another popular, widely accepted and actually appreciated form of doctoring is the filling of travertine. As we all know, travertine has many natural holes throughout its texture. Absolutely nothing wrong and everything right with that. In fact, not only are the customers widely aware of the filling, but they’re also given the choice of purchasing unfilled travertine. If properly applied, the filler is permanent and there’s no deception whatsoever; once again, it’s a green light across the board!
Now that we blessed the filling of stone and the resining process with our “seal of approval”, let’s see what other kinds of doctoring are popular in this day and age and if they are all as good as filling, resining and the other types of positive doctoring as seen above.
While visiting a tile and stone showroom a few years ago, this writer noticed some weird-looking blue “granite” tiles. They did look, somehow, like Blue Bahia “granite”; but the price tag was amazingly low for that kind of material – just in line with more affordable mercantile granites. Asking one of the owners of the store, it turned out that they were some Indian White Kashmir tiles doctored with some sort of topical blue paint to make them appear what they were not. When I asked, “And what is going to happen as people start walking on those tiles and the blue comes off?” “Oh, well,” was the answer, “we don’t charge them as it was the real thing!...”
Well, I really don’t think this kind of non-permanent doctoring would find many fans once it is installed in someone’s dwelling! The low price could be factored in as a mitigating factor, but the malicious deception is still there totally unscathed, because nobody is going to tell the customers what will to happen to those tiles, once they start walking on them. Who, in their right mind, would ever buy such a product if they but knew? No matter how cheap those tiles are, when the doctoring agent starts to give they will look terrible – much worse than if they had been left and sold for what they actually are. In a case like this, we’re entering into consumer fraud territory and the doctoring becomes indeed a bad thing.
However, the most disturbing doctoring that has emerged is the alteration of black “granite” and other darker “granites”. As many industry operators know, black “granite” is quite far from being classified as granite from a geological point of view; it’s either (mostly) gabbro, norite, dolerite or anorthosite. (But even the latter three are considered as part of the gabbro group.) These stones have no relation whatsoever to granite, but this is another topic. Right now we’re looking at the wide-spread doctoring that’s going on with many of these stones.
As we all know, the “cut color” of “black granite” is light grey. By wetting the raw stone, one can get a pretty accurate idea of what it will look like when polished, color-wise. In fact, it is the polishing of “black granite” that creates the optical illusion of the color black. Alas, Mother Nature hasn’t been fair all the time: certain “black granite”, no matter how much you polish it, will never become black; at best it will be dark grey.
This natural fact doesn’t sit well with the market’s demand, which is inclined to prefer (and value) polished black stone. High-grade “black granite” still commands top price. Dark grey “granite” does not. Actually, there would be very few takers, no matter how cheap the law of supply and demand would make it, which in turn would not make it economical to quarry and process.
What to do?
Very simple: doctor the surface of the stone by applying some sort of a shiny black wax, and sell it to suckers as “black absolute” or “black granite”! The “suckers” in this picture are ultimately the final end-users of the product, of course. Sure, it’s true that the stuff has to go through the distribution channels, but so far none of the parties involved in the process were very successful at convincing anybody that they didn’t know what they were buying and selling. Unless, of course, they want to make the world believe that they are a bunch of innocent naives without a clue of what and whom they’re dealing with. And even so, what happens to all the doctored slabs in their yards, when the first complaints start coming in? But let’s concentrate on the technicality and legality of this kind of stone doctoring.
The topical black coating that they were able to develop and “improve” are pretty tough cookies: most mineral solvents will not affect many of them. However, at least after a while, acidic substances will. So this is your typical case scenario:
Customers go the stone yard and select the slab themselves. (For some reason, people love to do that!) It’s nice and black and flawless, and it is picked out and delivered to the fabrication shop. The fabricator processes the slab into a countertop, and installs it in somebody’s home or place of business. This somebody did pay good money for that “Black Absolute granite”! Within a few days or even a few months down the road, depending on how “good” the “quality” of the doctoring black wax is and the intensity of the traffic, the black coating will start to be affected by foot traffic (in the case of floors) and acidic substances, such as lemon juice, salad dressing, any kind of drink including pop sodas, tomato sauce, etc., through a long list. The visual result will appear as some sort of “ghost stain” of a color lighter than black, namely dark grey. Since the stain is lighter than the stained material, it must be automatically ruled out as a true stain; so, what on earth is it? It is the doctoring black wax coming off, thus revealing the true color of the stone, which its unaware owners would have probably never bought if they but knew.
Well, no matter how you slice it, that is full fledged consumer fraud – a plain criminal activity. It is altering deceptively and in a non-permanent way a given material, not in order to improve a product’s inherent quality, but to make someone believe that it is something more valuable than what it actually is.
Many, including this writer, always complain about the lack of many industry standards, but in this case there’s no need of any industry standards: we already have laws of the land that could be enforced to protect consumers against this kind of crime. But it’s not so easy, alas.
Continuing with the case scenario above, we’re now at the point where the consumers begin to realize that their “Black Absolute Granite” is acting funny. The first step, of course, is to go back to the fabricator.
We have to take a little time out at this point to set the record straight. While it is almost inconceivable that the distributors do not know that they’re dealing with doctored slabs, the fabricators may indeed be innocent. This writer did meet with quite a few honest fabricators, who didn’t realize that those slabs of “black granite” were doctored, and it is credible because of the way stone is processed nowadays. In the old days, it was the fabricator who would calibrate the rough slab by grinding it in the shop and then hone and polish it. Nowadays this is done automatically and much more efficiently in some far off factory. Most fabricators don’t know how and don’t even have the equipment to face-polish stone slabs, and those who do, will not even think of touching the surface of the stone, unless they have to in order to remove an occasional scratch or make up for some possible factory flaw. Consequently, they may indeed be unaware of the fact that the particular slab they’re dealing with is doctored in a bad way. (The processing of the edges should be a sign, though.) That being said, let’s go back to our case scenario.
We are to the point when the customer goes back to the fabricator complaining about these weird “ghost water marks” that suddenly popped up and won’t come out. At this point, knowledgeable fabricators will realize that there’s something fishy about the finish of that slab, and some little testing will confirm that there’s a black coating put there to deceive the customer into believing that they were getting black “granite”. Now the question is: what to do next? Which also begs another question: if the fabricator is so knowledgeable, even admitting that, as seen above, they didn’t know, why didn’t they check the slab out before cutting it into shape and then delivering into the customer’s home?
Be that as it may, the knowledgeable and reputable fabricator will go back to the stone yard and demand the replacement of the slab. There’s usually not much resistance: the distributors of doctored “black granite” will consider that as part of the cost of doing business. But the fact remains that now the fabricator will be out of the money of fabricating, removing the old countertop and installing the new one. So, all too many times, what in reality happens is that the fabricator will begin to deliver a song and dance story to the customer, indicating that’s a natural characteristic of all “black granites”, and that they didn’t select the slab, and all sorts of pathetic and malicious lies to get away from a “difficult” situation without losing any money.
Unfortunately, this author has reason to believe that this is the most popular line and, in most instances, the customer will swallow the “reality” presented to them by the fabricator, and will either live with that piece of garbage, or just bite the bullet, and spend more money to replace the countertop, possibly with something different than natural stone.
Why does the customer believe this? It’s quite simple: if the consumers demanding to see their (unknown) rights recognized were a majority, the merchants would stop their criminal activity very quickly! But it’s not happening, and the doctoring of “black granite” and other darker stones that’s been going on for at least a good 20 years, seems to be a very “flourishing” industry instead. At the very beginning, and to the best of this writer’s knowledge, only producers from Zimbabwe were doctoring “black granite”. Now there are several Indian producers that have been “inspired” by their fellow African masters and are doing it. Furthermore, other darker stones are being doctored the same way, too.
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| Doctoring away – Part I: “Black granite” slab drying under the Indian sun after the “magic black wax” has been applied on the surface of the stone. |
What can consumers do to protect themselves from this kind of fraud?
Not much, unfortunately. The information is out there already: run this author’s little lemon juice test and you will find out before you commit yourself to a certain slab. (Considering how “good” the black waxes have become lately and that it will take some time before they degrade to the point of being affected by a relatively mild agent as citric acid, it would be best to use stronger acids to run the test.) But the real problem is not the information itself; the real problem is that spreading the word to make sure that the information reaches a significantly large base of consumers costs a lot of money.
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| Doctoring away – Part II: Indian “artisans” diligently buffing the “magic black wax” to finish the job |
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| Doctoring away – Part III: the slabs are bundled up ready to be shipped. The runs of the “magic potion” are detectable on the side of the slabs. It’s a sure sign of doctoring. They may look like the runs of resining, but the latter are thicker and shinier. Besides, good-quality black “granite” slabs are seldom resined. |
It is a despicable scam and a total shame. Not too long ago an associate and dear friend told this writer: “You know, it’s true that you don’t need specific industry standards to fight this kind of criminal activity, but they would help in many ways: they would show to the world that not all the industry operators are in favor of this kind of behavior, it would isolate the crooks, and would make things easier for the final consumers to understand what’s going on and see their rights enforced. I believe it’s about time that the stone industry begins to think about these unacceptable practices and find ways to effectively police and self-cleanse itself, if it wants to be taken seriously.”
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Doctoring away – Part IV: Ouch! What are those weird “ghost stains” and “ghost rings”?... Now you know |