Sea shells on the sea shore…. or in your stone fireplace
Limestone is a sedimentary rock, formed when layers of calcite sediment, and the skeleton remains of dead sea creatures are laid down, (settling in rivers for example) and over millions of years, natural compaction turns the sediment into rock. One of the purest froms is chalk, and this is where the sediment is almost entirely calcite, Not that we make stone fireplaces out of chalk! More often, though, other minerals, mud, sand and other deposits are laid down at the same time and interspersed with the calcite. This explains the many different types of limestone.
Our stone fireplaces sometimes reveal an intact sea shell, or impression where a sea shell once lay, and of course we never know these are there until the stone is finally cut.
Because Limestone is formed in layers it is permeable, and when we make your stone fireplace, we cut the stone using water as a lubricant and cooling medium for our masons’ tools. The stone can absorb a great deal of water in this process, and hence our advice that your fireplace may take many weeks to dry out. This of course depends on where it’s kept. If you have it in a centrally heated building or house, it will dry out much quicker than if it’s in a shed, in the winter.
Limestone also becomes considerably harder as it dries out, and is exposed to the air.