Met History wrote:

> Are all sandstones - whether happy or unhappy - alike?

No two stones are alike. Not all sandstones are alike. Not all granites
are alike. Not all marbles are alike.
Any two stones of any variety are not alike, they will be noticeably
unique upon close inspection.
Of the various classifications of stone, they have within them different
varieties of stones that are not alike.
It is this variety that is quite often intended with the statement that
stone is a "natural" material.

Differences in the expense of stone has to do mainly with energy
expended in transport, and to a lesser extent in the quarry and
fabrication process.
The difference in cost of setting, from one type of stone to another, is
generally negligible.
It is now known to be cheaper to quarry some stones in the US, ship to
Europe for fabrication, then ship back to install on a building.
Stone being heavy it is economic to put it into a slow boat with large
capacity and wait.

Better or worse in quality of a building stone is determined by the
experience of durability in use.
Building stones are selected and used based on the existing best and
available information regarding future performance.
Stone is not regular, like with steel, glass, or concrete and it is the
difficulty of determining the performance characteristics from an
engineering perspective that often rules against the use of stone in
preference for steel, glass and concrete which in use in a structure can
be more easily predicted for their performance.

A sculptor will look at a stone different than a builder and for them
quality of a stone will have a different set of criteria and tolerances.
If it does not last in the building, in the environment, then it is not
a good stone for where it was used.
Stones do not exhibit conflicts over original sin and/or guilt and
therefore it is difficult to classify them as "bad."

][<en

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