You don't need a lab to read stone. You need three questions, and the courage to look closely.

One: what does it do to a knife?

Scratch it with a steel blade. If the steel leaves a mark, it's limestone or marble. If the stone laughs at the steel, you're holding quartzite or granite. One scratch, half the family tree.

Two: is it layered or solid?

Layered means sedimentary or metamorphic — it was laid down, bed by bed. A solid, speckled mass that looks like a jigsaw of crystals is igneous. The texture is the fingerprint.

Three: is there a fossil?

A fossil settles it — the stone is sedimentary, and it was once a sea floor. Read the three answers together and you can name most stone you'll ever touch.