Glossary

Knife-shape (slab)
Irregular and convergent trend in the thickness of some slabs resulting from natural splitting.

Running free lenth
Element of fixed width and indefinite length, varying within set limits, usually not less than the width.

Acquatura-Slope
Slope given when installing steps, thresholds, sills, covers, etc. generally equal to or greater than 1%.

Scarcement
Protrusion of an artifact from another adjacent or lower architectural element or component, usually obtained during installation.

Loose
This refers to products that are marketed without any packaging, loaded loose onto means of transport.

Bedlayer
Arrangement in a row on the same line of one or more courses of artifacts.

Riser
Vertical step covering element, carried under the tread.

Anchorage
Attachment of slabs or various artifacts to the supporting structure.

Nonslip
Property of a stone material to limit or prevent the sliding of a supported or moving body.

Contrasting arcs ("normal")
Most commonly used method for laying cubes.

Arming
Metal reinforcement (usually brass or steel) inserted into an artifact to increase specific resistance to certain stresses.

Stop
The stopping of a cut or linear machining before the edge of a manufactured item (e.g., drip pan).

Masonry assistance
Ancillary services to installation, generally provided by the construction company: unloading and lifting of material, distribution, mortar, laborers helping the installers, water, electricity, etc...

Long edge in wie of the threshold
Abrupt change in elevation on the plane of thresholds, or sills, etc., achieved by lowering the plane or by embedding a projecting lath.

Owl Beak (Half Bull)
Linear workmanship with convex curved section.

Beverone
Semi-liquid slurry of aggregates and/or binders.

Bindero
Parallelepiped-shaped element with rustic, split surfaces, used for containing and/or delineating pavements, but also as an actual paving element.

Bevel
Bevel of a seen edge, of substantial value.

Block from gangsaw
Square block of appropriate size for good performance when sawn to the frame.

Formless (rough) block
Irregular confirmation block.

Square block
Block reduced to a tendentially parallelepiped shape.

Wolf's mouth
A cavity of various sizes drilled in the lower part of the curb for the purpose of draining surface water into the culverts.

Bushhammer
Tool for obtaining bush-hammered finishes (coarse, medium, fine) whose impact surface is composed of numerous small pyramid-shaped protrusions.

Liquid grout
Semi-liquid slurry of water and powdered binder (cement, lime, etc.), with or without the addition of very fine sand.

Weir stones
Large, parallelepiped-shaped artifact used for lining hydraulic works (creek beds, embankments, etc.).

Bugnato
Cladding obtained from rough split elements having more or less pronounced surface reliefs (ashlars).

Gutter
Slab that closes the mouth of access to the water network, which has openings of different shapes (rectangular, round, etc.) designed to drain surface water into the underground channels.

Calibration
Reduction of machined thickness to a single predetermined value.

Sampling
Space that has consistent compositional characteristics in order to achieve an aesthetic effect. Samples can affect all or part of the surface to be covered and can be iterated.

quarry top
Top part of a porphyry bench, consisting of plant cores, moraine deposits, topsoil, etc. Sometimes also the upper part of a deposit.

Cover
Upper horizontal element covering the top of a building structure.

Casebook
Bill of cut and detailed processing of all or part of the elements constituting a supply of manufactured goods.

Concentric circles
Configuration assumed by cubes laid according to a particular geometry.

Manhole (manhole)
Slab that closes the mouth of access to underground technological facilities (sewers, etc.).

Peacock tail
Detail drawing of laying cubes.

Cultivation
The set of operations and techniques pertaining to the management of a quarry.

Concio
Shaped block or corner or a very regularized wall parameter, arc component.

kerb
Parallelepiped-shaped artifact used for the formation of sidewalks, flowerbeds, steps, etc., and for delineating surfaces and pavements.

Course
Succession of elements of equal width on the surface.

Coast
Side surface of a slab or artifact having as its dimensions the thickness and length or width of the slab.

Split (ashlar) rib
Side surface of a slab, worked by mechanical shearing or manual splitting, which presents throughout its extension the "living" part of the stone in the form of more or less pronounced ashlars.

Milled edge
Side surface of a slab, sawn with diamond discs. The degree of finish corresponds to that of a polished surface.

Cubic
Coarsely cubic paving element, obtained by mechanical splitting and whose edges vary according to type. It almost always has two faces (the upper one in view and the lower one in natural plane) and four splitting faces.

Wedge
(gerg.) Piece of cube with triangular or trapezoidal surface used in laying cubes.

Cunetta
Open channel at the edges of a pavement for the collection and adduction of surface liquids.

Notch (scuretto)
Linear work consisting of a depression of square cross-section drilled on the rib or surface.

Dima (template)
True-to-life model usually of only the plan of special pieces, made of lightweight material (wood, cardboard, plastic) on the shape of which you make the identical porphyry piece in the laboratory.

Diamond blade
Cutting tool, consisting of a round steel blade, the outermost parts of which are coated with abrasive segments consisting of industrial diamond powders.

Face
Front surface of a slab or artifact having length and width as its dimensions.

Exposed face
The surface part of an element that is exposed to visibility after the element has been installed.

Fascia (band)
Series of elements delimiting a sampling or a surface or part of a surface.

Flaming (thermal splitting)
Surface processing achieved by a powerful oxy-propane flame, resulting in surface characterization caused by melting and subsequent cooling of crystals.

Filagna (list)
Linear element obtained from block or the largest size slabs.

Wire (ground, rustic, finished, chamfered, rounded, etc.)
The edge part of the slab seen horizontally.

Franco
Difference in elevation between floor before laying and finished floor.

Cutter (trimmer)
Machine for cutting plates and manufactured goods obtained by sawing.

Milling
Linear cut made with the milling cutter.

Joint
Resulting space between the elements of a floor or wall covering once installation has been carried out.

Sister joints
(gerg.) Joints of multiple elements along the same non-predetermined alignment.

Quarry
Volume of quality rock suitable for undergoing quarry workings.

Hyacinth
Orientation of the bedrock layering planes (toe, pariana).

Giandino (Sgiandino)
Tool used for working and finishing split ribs.

Joint
Plans for proximity between the ribs or heads of adjacent artifacts in place.

Open joint
Distance greater than one millimeter between contiguous slabs or elements, visually perceptible.

Closed joint
Distance tending to zero between adjacent slabs or elements and visually perceptible only at very close range.

Highlighted joint
Joint (closed or open) marked by means of chamfers, bevels, notches, or other processing, for the purpose of achieving an aesthetic effect.

Hidden joint
Joint made not visually perceptible by grouting or other masking.

Drip groove
Milled on the bottom surface of artifacts exposed to runoff, near the edges of the ribs in question, to disrupt the adhesion of droplets and cause their detachment.

Steps (a)
Type of plinth for flights of stairs.

Grain
Visible appearance of the granules that make up a stone.

Granulometry
Technique for analyzing grain size composition; allows the shape and size of the grains comprising a rock to be determined.

Rough

1. In a generic sense to mean raw material.
2. In a specific sense, referring to manufactured or semi-finished goods that are amenable to further processing.

Guide
(slang.) One or more rows of cubes laid parallel to the perimeter of the surface to be paved.

Padding
Layer of bedding mortar between artifact and laying structure.

In crates
Packaging of marketed products packed within sturdy wooden crates.
The wooden crates used once loaded weigh t 1.5/2 and occupy a volume of mc 1/1.3 depending on the size of the crates.

In bags
Packaging of small-sized material (cubes, pebbles, etc.) placed inside sturdy big bags equipped with laces for handling by mechanical means. Weighing up to t 1.5, they occupy a volume of slightly less than one cubic meter.

Inclusion
Presence in the crystalline mass, of element structurally and chromatically dissimilar to the average porphyry homogeneity.

Sanding
Filling by sand of the resulting empty gaps between elements of a pavement.

Heading
Reducing the length of a semi-finished product (filagna) or machined product to the desired size.

Heading machine
Bench-mounted milling machine, consisting of two or more rotating discs that cut the strips into pieces of predetermined length.

Lasso
Slang term meaning cracking, plane of scitosity, sometimes evident other times hidden, almost always present in porphyry blocks before the of the workings.

Running slab
Sheared or trimmed slab having fixed width and undefined length, varying within limits, usually not less than the width.

Fixed-size slab
Sheared or trimmed slab having a predetermined length and width.

Saw-plane slab
Slab whose exposed face has not undergone finishing processing after sawing (e.g., flaming or polishing).

Slab from gangsaw
Slab with irregular edges, having rectangular shape.

Lastrame (opera incerta, palladiana, mosaic)
Porphyry slabs of irregular shape, produced by opening cracks and sorting the resulting rough slabs, distinguished into various types according to their thickness and size.

Listel
Linear molding with a straight section.

Mark
Letter and/or number marking a machined element within a set of pieces needed to form a staircase, flooring, etc. Marking numbers and/or letters bear the same symbols on the manufactured items as already on the drawing and box.

Hammer
A hammer of elongated shape having a flattened end, suitable for forcing cubes into the bedding bed and moving small amounts of sand.

Mazzaranga Special manual tamper for cubes
Iron pestle weighing about 20/25 kg. operated manually, which is used for tapping cube paving.

Half bull
See Owl's beak.

Clamp
(gerg.) End cubes placed at the edges of a keystone.

Multidisc
Milling machine used for series cutting of blocks and slabs through simultaneous milling achieved by using several blades.

Pallet (pallet, base)
Base usually made of wood on which finished or semi-finished products are packed.

Step
Horizontal element of the step.

Laying surface
Surface prepared for laying porphyry pavement.

Vibrating plate
A machine of different sizes and weights used, for example, for compacting subgrade or beating cubes.

At th foot of the rock
Operations located in the immediate vicinity of the part of the site intended for laying.

Driveway plinth (dardine)
Artifact almost always used in pairs at the ends of a driveway.

Manhole
Each of the openable cavities that provide access to underground technological facilities (sewers, etc.).

Preposa (dry mock up)
Simulated laboratory laying for testing measurements and coloring of floors, walls or complex artifacts.

Tip
Tool for percussion machining.

Quartobuono (miter)
Type of corner slab joint.

Randa Space of work
Slang term for a strip of surface to be paved in cubes of varying width depending on the size of the cubes and the size of the surface itself.

Trimming
Cutting slabs or semi-finished products with a disc trimming machine.

Metal Strap
Metal or plastic band with which the processed products in the packages are tied (provide plastic edge protectors at the strap/porphyry contact points).

Resistance to sudden changes and thermal shock

Ability of a rock to maintain its physical-mechanical properties unchanged following thermal shock.

Resistance to wear and tear

Ability of a rock to resist wear and tear actions and consumption by sliding and rolling friction.

mark down
Removal of part of the volume of an artifact to obtain relief.

Flap
Finishing work of ribs of an artifact from the side relative to the surface or to the ribs and heads seen.

Rust
Natural stain of iron hydroxide or other chemical components, deposited on the surface of natural plane elements.

Sandblasting
Surface finishing, which is achieved by a high-pressure jet of quartz saab, evenly etching the surface.

Laddered (ribbon)
Type of skirting for flights of stairs.

Chiseling
Surface processing obtained by tapping the surface with special tools.

Scuretto (notch, square)
Linear square section milling to highlight joints or hide contact imperfections.

Flaking
Aptitude of porphyry to split according to preferential planes.

Scrap
Parts of semi-finished products that are wasted during processing.

Smollero
Small slab with sides and split heads that is "planted" rather than laid.

Bevel
Linear finish machining of the edges seen (minimal equals "away the sharp"; accentuated equals bevel).

Threshold
Manufactured for floors at interior doors or exterior level openings.

Driveway threshold
Thick element connecting the roadway elevation with the elevation of the sidewalk, garage, etc.

Overcut
Trimming cut not orthogonal to the plate surface, positive value.

undercut
Trimming cut not orthogonal to the plate surface, negative value.

Subgrade
Incompressible layer sandwiched between the foundation soil and the bedding of a pavement.

Shoulder
Vertical element of the opening contour (doors, windows, etc.).

Stilatura
Smoothing of the seal at heights nearly coplanar to that of the porphyry elements, connected by it.

Structure (of a rock)
The term indicates the intimate mutual relationships of mineralogical constituents: degree of crystallization, grain size, shape and size of crystallized minerals, etc. Visible only with a microscope.

Quarry (or natural) plane surface
Rough surface of materials resulting from only the breaking up of natural cracks. Usually has mixed colors and the slabs are of varying thicknesses.

Saw plane (or disk plane) surface
Surface resulting from the cutting operation with diamond disk machines. The degree of finish corresponds to that of a polished surface.

Gangsaw plane surface
Surface area resulting from the multi-blade reciprocating frame sawing operation.

Thermally split (or flamed) surface
Surface resulting from the operation of flaming with an oxy-propane or oxyacetylene torch. The resulting abrupt and localized thermal shocks cause the surface to disintegrate with detachment of minute flakes, giving it a characteristic appearance, similar to the natural plane.

Surface from impact machining
Surface resulting from machining with machine- or hand-operated impact tools.
Depending on the type of tool used, this will result in a:

• Blunt surface, obtained with a coarse or fine point and mallet;
• Chiseled surface, obtained with chisel and mallet;
• Bush-hammered surface, obtained by bush-hammering.

Surface area from abrasive grinding
Surface area resulting from machining with machines carrying abrasive wheels of different fineness.
The degree of surface finish is a function of the fineness of the abrasive.
In this regard, a distinction is made between

• Coarse polished surface obtained with abrasive plate No. 1 (grit 60);
• Medium polished surface, obtained with abrasive plate No. 2 (grit 120);
• Fine polished surface obtained with abrasive plate No. 3 (220 grit);
• Satin surface, obtained with abrasive plate No. 4 (grit 400) and shellac plate and ventilated cue;
• Polished surface, obtained with felt disc and the application of polishes, or with lead in sheets and special plates.

Block cutter
Large-diameter diamond disc milling machine for cutting blocks (shapeless) and producing semi-finished mass-produced products.

Gangsaw
Large machine equipped with multi-blades (also single-blade), which through reciprocating motion cause blocks to be sawn.

Head - side
Lateral surface of a slab having the thickness and width of the slab as its dimensions; in the case of kerbs, the top visible face of the elements is also called the head.

Tolerance
Dimensional difference from the customarily accepted standard on a single product or among a series of products in a batch.

Bull (stick)
Linear workmanship with a curved-convex section.

Fan (or goosefoot)
Trapezoidal or circular sector step.

Suction cup
Vacuum tool used for lifting, handling and laying heavy or large slabs or artifacts.

Zanca
Metal element of varying shape and size intended to be constrained to the artifact and structure during installation.