I'll be very curious to hear the results of the glass test on this one. I think it looks more like marble than quartzite. With those large crystals you can see the shape of each grain. If it's marble, those crystals will have a shape like a rhombus. If it's quartz, they won't have much of any regular shape at all. If I squint I think I can see rhombus shapes. Let us know! It's very pretty!

I found a slab of espinella gold quartzite at the local supplier. The colours are perfect for my kitchen though the design is unusual and I have to think more about it. The Italian who worked in the yard called it tartaruga - italian for turtle. (The slab has large shapes that resemble turtles!) Does anyone know anything about this quartzite? Thanks.

Well, the behavior of the rock makes sense. Knowing what we know now, thanks to Sweetcheetah, is that the rock is extremely well-bonded, pure quartz. This rock went through a lot of metamorphism to the point where the quartz grains grew into each other. The degree to which this happens with quartzites depends on how much metamorphism it undergoes. Some quartzites aren't much different from the sandstone they started out as. But others get much more heat and pressure and approach melting, but don't melt. Instead they recrystallize where the grains all grow into each other. It looks like in this rock the crystals are fairly large, which probably makes it more challenging to work with. So yeah, cutting this rock would be a lot like cutting glass. Extremely difficult and prone to breaking. As I described above, quartz (and glass) tends to break unevenly so it's hard to make a clean cut in that case. Too bad, Antarctica is a stunner. But the Snowflakes is cool too! Soilbean's example is fantastic (and those pendants - swoon!).

I have white carrara marble dining table. High polish. When it came from the dealer it stained and etched. Small stains could be reduced at home by using rotary tool with jewelry paste to polish those off. I used Mellerud made in Germany. I cleaned top with warm water and dishwashing liquid. Polished off all small water stains and then sealed with this liquid several times. I use just a regular clean sponge and cover surface with Mellerud spread it around evenly let it soak and then apply more to remove the surface remains or move them around to create even coverage. Every time you add more liquid it will reactivate and move the excess liquid that has dried on top that will allow you to remove the unneeded excess of sealant. I repeated this about 4 times. Let it dry overnight and then repeated the same process in a few days. After about 7-8 coats the table become unstainable. Water just wipes off without leaving marks , same with oils or wine. Of course you don't let any spills sit on the surface for hours but 10-15 minutes of exposure will not harm my marble top anymore. I am sure I would have to repeat the sealing in a few years , but so far it has been liquid-proof. Do not ever assume that the marble you get from the store comes properly sealed- lesson I have learned the hard way. BTW, this sealant does not affect the color of my top at all, I have not noticed any shade or haze of different color.