Finish is the single largest variable in how Shahabad limestone performs and how it prices. It changes colour depth, slip resistance, cleanability and the cost of the m² far more than the block it came from.
Riven is the cheapest to produce because it is the face the bed gives. It carries the highest wet pendulum values and hides service wear. It also carries a thickness tolerance of ±3 mm, which the tiler pays for on the bed.
Honing is a calibrated grind. It flattens the face, tightens the tolerance to ±1 mm and drops the wet value into the mid-thirties. For most external UK paving this is the right balance, with a brushed or textured band at thresholds and pool edges.
Brushing runs diamond brushes over a honed face. It costs about eight percent more than honed, lifts the wet value into the forties, and softens the arris so the floor reads older than it is.
Polishing is a progressive grit sequence to a close reflective face. It deepens colour dramatically — Maroon gains most — and it belongs indoors. Anyone specifying polished limestone externally in a UK winter is buying a maintenance problem.
The comparator on each stone page moves through the finishes on one slab so the difference can be judged as a material change rather than a list of adjectives.