So, I found this stone mantel behind the garage of the 100 year old house we just bought. It was mostly buried in the dirt. Fits our mantel perfect. Some sort of green stone. Was painted black at some point. I'm trying to strip the paint and want to refinish the stone. Area is southeast of Pittsburgh. Father of the man who built the house was an Italian stonemason that immigrated.
Don't think it's slate, has a tight grain and rings when you knock on it.
What kind of stone is this?
I’m no geologist but I’d have said slate.
So, I looked it up and the description of Phyllite seems on point. Geology is super interesting!
Even more searching showed shale which also looks like a good candidate. Thanks for posting this. I have been curious about geology lately and this caused me to look this up.
It may be slate, now that I read more about it. Don't have any experience with slate, shale, or phyllite. Not sure.
Definitely not shale. Slate is metamorphized shale. You'd never make a mantel out of shale, too flaky.