POLISHED DIORITE

Diorite is the plain stone the other two variants are built from, 2 cobblestone and 2 quartz and nothing else, no second stone type needed. Polishing it is one more step past that, and the Mason sells the finished block directly: 1 emerald at journeyman buys 4 of it.

It reads the whitest and most speckled of the three polished stones on his list, closer to quartz than to plain stone, which is why it shows up so often paired with actual quartz blocks in bright builds rather than grey ones.

A single line, sold by one profession: the Mason at journeyman, 1 emerald for 4 blocks, and nothing else on the trade list touches diorite in its polished form.

The price is written into the trade file rather than rolled, so two different masons at the same tier charge exactly the same thing. Curing a zombie villager into this profession does not discount it either.

Polished Diorite sells for as little as 1 emerald for 4 at a time, from the Mason at the Journeyman tier, and 6 of the other 9 cost less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Mason will quote you exactly the same.

The Mason at its journeyman tier asks 1 emerald for 4 polished diorite. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

a diamond against 26 flint for the same 1 emerald, 26 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 37.5 real seconds of shelf, gathering not counted.

A villager becomes a Mason the moment you put a stonecutter next to him, and he starts at Novice with none of this unlocked. Polished diorite only enters his list at journeyman, level 3 of five, 70 trading experience up from the bottom.

Get him there and the offer runs 16 times before it locks, refilling twice a Minecraft day if he can reach his stonecutter. Break that block before he reaches the tier and the climb resets with him; do it after, and the trade is his for good.

Working through 16 uses takes as long as the clicking does. The refill after that is fixed at 2 real minutes, and a full Minecraft day, 20 real minutes, holds exactly two of those.

Stay for both restocks and one mason hands over 32 uses, 128 blocks for 32 emeralds, inside that 20 minute window. Miss a restock and nothing is lost, it just waits for your next visit.

A full slot is 16 uses, 64 blocks for 16 emeralds. Buy it out in one pass rather than trickling purchases across visits; the price never moves either way.

The same mason buys 10 clay balls per emerald, a cheap way to fund the purchase if you are already digging near a river.

Also on the Mason's list: dripstone block, nether quartz, colored terracotta, glazed terracotta, quartz pillar, and quartz block.

Polished diorite is nearly white and costs nothing but the diorite that was already in your way. Quartz is whiter and comes from the nether; white concrete needs dye and sand and water. This is the one you can have on day two.

Four diorite make four polished, so polishing is free, and a stonecutter turns it straight into slabs and stairs without the usual waste of a crafting grid.

It goes further as trim than as a wall. Large flat areas of it read as blank; used as a frame around darker stone it does the job people usually spend quartz on.