How to tell if it's real marble and it's origins

September 12, 2016 2 Comments

Marble has been around for centuries, adding flare and luxury to the rich and famous estates. Nowadays, with advanced processing technology, there has been a lot more replicas of engineered marble trying to replace the real deal. Not only man-made faux marble but also imitation quarries from around the world.

With over 40 years in manufacturing stone, we often see consumers and even experienced industry professionals be fooled by a lower quality product sold as the original.

With the rise and popularity of natural marble products these days, we have seen a lot of scams on the market that wholesalers or new brands may not be aware of when purchasing from China manufacturers. For example, many times we see Chinese white marble being marketed as Italian Carrara white marble.

Carrara White Marble Slab

Italian Carrara Marble Slab

The above marble slab is the famous Italian Carrara marble from Carrara which has been specified from thousands of prominent projects and products around the world.

Chinese Carrara White Marble

Chinese Carrara White Marble Slab

This photo above is a white marble slab from China that many Chinese stone factories try to sell off as the Italian Carrara marble. Many consumers, wholesalers, and even smaller brands not in the industry are often fooled by these factories, especially with products as small as a marble iPhone case with an attractively low price. It's like what mama always said, "you pay for what you get".

Consumers are often fooled by the white stone with grey veins but it's much more than that when it comes to differentiating between Carrara White and "carrara white". Knock offs from China are inevitable. Even the largest brands in the world face this problem, but our purpose is to educate the mass and help them make a proper decision.

So here are 3 essential steps to identifying where the marble is from:

Marble Veins

Every marble has it's own distinct pattern and veining. As the example above, the Carrara marble has thinner lightning veins that run through the slab. Whereas the Chinese Carrara marble has thicker and more compact veins.

Coloration

Most marble stones have a distinction in the tonality of color. When it comes to white and black base colors, it's a little more difficult. There are many shades throughout the slab, and unless you put two pieces to compare, this sometimes maybe more difficult to differentiate. It helps when combining the look of the base color and pattern of the veins. Again like the example above.

Shine and Sheen

One of the most desirable attributes of marble is its polished shine. The glossiness of each marble can vary, which technically depends on how dense/hard the marble is. Unfortunately, with poor processing quality, even a good piece of marble can come out dull. For this article, let's just focus on marble itself for now! Carrara marble is a denser marble which is capable of holding a great shine to it when processed correctly. Some of the white marbles from China have a more "dull" effect and doesn't have that clean look.

Hope this article can help you determine real marble products from the knock off versions.

For further information on identifying genuine marble vs. faux marble, we have a section at the link below:

http://www.mikolmarmi.com/blogs/news/77425857-how-to-identify-genuine-marble