Irish limestone

The fossil fragments give this harder limestone its characteristic appearance, while the finely dispersed carbon in the rock results in an extraordinary colour contrast from light grey to dark blue to shiny black, depending on the surface finish.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

PROCESSING

Irish limestone, also known as Irish bluestone, can be worked very well by hand, the work steps are similar to those for marble: The point chisel is used for larger shaping and greater material removal, the claw chisel and the flat chisel or lettering chisel are used for smoothing and shaping details. When using a point chisel, care must be taken not to work too deeply, especially if the stone is to be polished. If the point chisel is applied at too steep an angle, white spots may remain visible when polishing. As Irish limestone contains dolomite and quartz, we recommend working with carbide tools.

Irish Bluestone can be polished to a high lustre. The colour of the stone varies depending on the surface finish: Due to carbon inclusions in the calcite crystals, Irish limestone has a blue base colour, which is particularly evident in rough polishing. The split stone appears rather dark grey with pale fossil remnant spots. The finer the stone is cut and polished, the stronger the contrast between the ground colour and the inclusions can become, up to black and white.

A slight sulphurous odour may develop when the stone is cut, although this is less pronounced than with Belgian bluestone, for example.

Highly polished Irish limestone sculptures are particularly suitable for installation indoors. Sculptures placed outdoors will lose their high-gloss polish over time.

FURTHER INFO

Irish Blue Limestone was formed around 340 million years ago as a compact crinoidal limestone with a rich fossil content, mainly brachiopods (shells) and polyps. Chemical composition: more than 98% calcite, 0.7% dolomite, 0.7% quartz, 0.2% organic carbon, less than 0.1% iron sulphite.

Stone is a natural product. We endeavour to reproduce the appearance of our sculptured stones as accurately as possible in the illustrations so that the character of the stone can be recognised. Ultimately, each stone is a unique piece and the appearance may differ accordingly from the illustration.