Onyx

Onyx comes through Latin (of the same spelling), from the Greek, meaning “claw” or “fingernail”. With its flesh tone color, onyx can be said to resemble a fingernail.

It is by all meanings a very valuable processed material due to its particular formation which donates to each slab from the same stone very different colored patterns with great variation of shades. Due to high polishing and slab thickness it is possible to achieve slabs of high transparency which increase the value of the Onyx.

By technical terms Onyx is a banded variety of chalcedony which is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine inter growths of the minerals quartz and moganite. The colors of its bands range from white to almost every color (save some shades, such as purple or blue). Commonly, specimens of onyx contain bands of black and/or white. Chalcedony has a waxy luster, and may be semitransparent or translucent. It can assume a wide range of colors, but those most commonly seen are white to gray, grayish-blue or a shade of brown ranging from pale to nearly black.

silicon dioxide, also known as silica (from the Latin silex), is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula SiO₂. It has been known since ancient times for its Hardness 7 (in Mohs scale); Silica is most commonly found in nature as sand or quartz, as well as in the cell walls of diatoms.

Onyx is mainly used for interior decoration donating a unique colored natural transparency which can be used in various elements including special furniture and particular design items.

The particular light transparency makes it possible to use it for paneled external and internal facing as part of glass windows as well as for internal paving made according to particular mounting.