DIORITE

Diorite is the plain one of the three igneous stones on the Mason's list, the pale mix neither granite nor andesite bother staying as once you feed either of them into a crafting grid. On his own trade table it works the same as the other two: he buys it at journeyman for 16 diorite per 1 emerald, never the other direction.

A crafting grid makes it from 2 cobblestone and 2 quartz, which is also the starting point for the other two: mix in more quartz and it becomes granite, mix in more cobblestone instead and it becomes andesite. Diorite sits in the middle of that little family tree, not the end of it.

A Mason at Journeyman pays 1 emerald for every 16 diorite you sell him, the rate the game's own files set for it.

The best rate any villager offers is an emerald per 16 diorite, from the Mason, and 3 of the other 5 pay out faster. No villager sells diorite back, so it is emeralds out and nothing in.

One slot at the Mason takes 16 diorite a trade, 16 trades, 16 emeralds. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

16 acacia boats against 384 paper for the same 16 emeralds, 24 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 10 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted. Diorite itself pays 16 an emerald, so 50 of the 72 ask less and 19 ask more.

Unemployed villagers do not have this trade, or any trade. Claiming a stonecutter is the first step, then 70 trading experience has to accumulate before journeyman unlocks, level 3 of five on the villager's climb.

Diorite arrives on that tier at 16 a use, 16 uses before the row locks, refilling on the standard restock cycle shared by everything else in his shop, capped at two fills a Minecraft day.

16 sales empty the slot, and the villager needs 2 real minutes back at his workstation before it fills again, twice at most inside a single Minecraft day of 20 real minutes.

Camped for both fills, one Mason takes 512 diorite off your hands for 32 emeralds in a day. Leave and come back later and the offer is exactly where it was.

A full slot is 256 diorite for 16 emeralds, best cleared in one trip since the price does not improve or worsen the longer you wait between visits.

Because it sits at the base of the crafting chain, keeping a surplus of diorite around means never being stuck for the raw material behind granite or andesite either, whichever one a build calls for next.

The Mason sells as well as buys: his cheapest offer running the other direction is bricks, in case it's finished building material you need rather than somewhere to unload stone.

Also on the Mason's list: polished andesite, polished granite, polished diorite, dripstone block, nether quartz and colored terracotta.

Diorite generates in blobs through the upper world, which means most players meet it as something in the way of the ore they were after. It is also the only one of the three speckled stones you can make yourself: two cobblestone and two quartz on the grid give two diorite.

Polished, it changes character completely. The speckles go, the surface goes flat white, and it becomes the cheapest white building block in the game, well before you have quartz to spare. A stonecutter turns raw diorite into the polished version without wasting any.

As a material it behaves like stone in every way that matters: same mining time, same blast resistance, no burning. The dislike is entirely about the pattern.