Saturday, June 20, 2009

Further honing of marble countertops?

Hello Maurizio. I have "honed" black St. Laurant marble kitchen countertops in a kitchen that has a vintage look.  I now understand from much research on your site the problems with this choice.  For now, however, I must deal with them, and in most ways they are beautiful.  I am comfortable with the scratching and staining that will result.  However, I selected the honed version because of my concern about etching and my desire to minimize its appearance, as well as a desire to have a non-shiny look.  My countertops, however, only a few months old, do not look fully honed.  Although they are clearly not highly polished, they do have quite a bit of sheen to them and almost look reflective in the right light.  I read in one of your replies that factory/fabrication shop honing is only about 50%.  I did not know enough about this issue at the time that the tops were installed to raise a concern; I had been assured that they would be fully honed and naively assumed that's what I was getting.  Now I am, of course, getting etch marks that create dull spots in the midst of my "honed" finish.  I would really like for the countertops to be fully honed, to help camouflage the etching problem.  What is your recommendation for further honing at this point?  I've tried to study your messages.  I know a stone restorer is the best choice.  However, I also read in one of your messages that marble can be acid-honed using either a phosphoric or muriatic acid.  Then, I read that both the mechanical honing and the phosphoric honing give the marble a gray look, leading to the need for your color-enhancer, but that the muriatic acid honing doesn't change the color.  However, with the muriatic acid honing I would see lighter spots on the marble after further spills of lemon juice, cola, etc.  I don't mind losing color initially with the phosphoric acid if it will come back out with the color enhancer, but I'm a little concerned about the lighter spots potentially resulting from future spills after a muriatic acid wash.  For acid-washing you seemed to recommend the muriatic route, however.  I want to make sure I'm interpreting your messages correctly.  Is it possible to use acid-washing for further honing, and if so, which is better - the phosphoric or muriatic acid washing?  I really appreciate your guidance; the research I've done through your messages has been very informative.  
Thank you. 
Janet.

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