A measurement scale is the logical tool through which the measurement of a statistical character takes place, with both qualitative and quantitative variables.
A reference scale is commonly used for values and factors that refer to the subject matter, such as the Richter Earthquake Scale.
Here you will find everything about the finishes that can be made on the surfaces of many kinds of slabs: natural stone, marble, stone, granite or agglomerates.

The polishing finishes enhances the characteristics of the material, highlighting the natural colors and veins and giving magnificence to the aesthetic aspect offered by nature. However, what we do here deals with the various rough finishes made for other purposes, such as antiskid flooring or decorative vertical cladding. In these cases, the stone is as important as the finish, offering an additional factor that opens up a further dimension complementary to the intervention of man.
When placed outside, colored stones tend to fade due to the action of HUV rays and limestone tend to lose their shininess due to the effect of corrosion from atmospheric agents, so a rough finish is necessary, as it is more appropriate to the use of these stones placed outside. Sometimes, it can become almost legendary: when the chiseled finish made on the stones of the monuments of Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa is viewed as scratches of the devil’s nails, as proof of the envy of the devil – according to the people of Pisa.

Man is the last to arrive on the great stage of life and he needs to eternalize his presence. Today we can admire countless testimonies of works made with centuries-old stones with rough finishes, careless of Time, witnesses of our History. Man has always worked with the stone and, after having obtained its shape, he carries out a rough finishing process using manual tools, which over time have evolved a lot. Today we carry out processes that are part of our culture because we’ve always found them in the testimonies of thousands of years, performed by past civilizations but still relevant in this day and age, and we might not notice it very often, simply because it’s part of our environment. Even today we repeat these processes for our needs of practicality, aesthetics and even eternity.
There are many processes and they all have different names, a jargon useful for professionals who need to understand each other and need to be able to propose, order and implement this precise processing. As it happened in the past, we still make bushammering, or sandblasting or chiselling – respectively made with bushammer, sand and chisel.

Marble makers still work at the request of architects with well-known definitions, such as coarse, medium or fine bushammering. These definitions come directly from the type of tool used, as there are coarse, medium and fine bushammer.
As long as the finishes were made manually or with the help of just a pneumatic hammer, there were no difficulties, but when new rotary systems appeared, things became more complicated. The latest production solutions are perfectly capable of replicating the traditional finishes, improving their uniformity, if required, but they also provide less stress for the processed material as they rely on pressure instead of percussion. The new systems also offer high productivity and the consequent reduction of the price of processing, making it more accessible too. The demands for specificity have also increased, and from the very beginning medium-coarse and medium-fine bushammering have been available options, as well as fine nicking and many more. All very satisfactory and evolutionary. This way, clients were able to accurately choose the type of work they wanted with minimal, but still substantial differences.
MSo, how can we represent this multiplicity of processes in simple terms? And also: how can we establish how fine is the fine bushammering and how coarse is the coarse bushammering finish? Or, for example, the medium-coarse finish: to what is it referred and how much is the correct amount? It’s necessary to give values for clarity, to establish quantities in reference to some parameters. To give names with references known to everybody and a numeric value to quantify the finish.
Following a simple, suitable way, we associate the signs of the finishes with the orthographic signs – the conventional ones: for example, points, commas or lines, because the bushammering is associated with points, comma with commas and scratching with lines. In addition, for completeness of information, other particularities, such as the arrangement and size of the signs, must be taken into account. The number of signs covering the surface of one square centimeter is reported to quantify what’s fine and what’s coarse, and to give a numerical, logical value with a conventional reference.
Following this logic, it’s possible to create a finishes table, where columns indicate the specifics of reference with the values, and rows indicate the various types of processing. The processing codes are generated accordingly. It becomes easily understandable to everybody, and there’s always the possibility of adding integrations following the same logic. You just need to define the sign, refer the characteristics and quantity per square centimeter. With this classification, it will be possible to mention codes to understand precisely what is meant. This means, for example, that it is possible to place orders with the code relating to the required finish, or to request new finishes on precise indications by elaborating new codes.
For your convenience, there is an identification swatch book with photos of the finishes – similar to the swatch book of colors or cloths.