Sawn Paving refers to blocks of stone which are machine cut into paving slabs with mechanical saws as opposed to cut by hand with hammer and chisel. Naturally occurring sedimentary rock such as sandstone is created as a result of compressed sedimentary layers. Many paving slabs are split along these layers and slabs of this type are called ‘riven’ — you can view our riven or ‘hand split’ paving slabs here. Sawn paving slabs — unlike other types of paving — are not split along these layers, and often sawn against the grain. They are sawn straight off in blocks and then cut down to precise sizes.