honed is not polished. it's matte. leathered is matte and textured. those are my understandings.

yes I'd describe the same as elizabeth714. Honed is a matte look, but still smooth. Leathered is also a matte look, but textured too.

I have leathered and I love it!

is there any reason NOT to get the leathered? as far as upkeep?

melanie - I love our leathered countertops...the texture is wonderful and they have a "warm" feel to them. We haven't had ours long, but so far the only potential thing that I've thought of in terms of upkeep is if you were to get stuff stuck a bit in a "divoted" area it would be slightly more difficult to clean. I suppose if you were rolling out a sticky dough and some got stuck and you didn't clean it, something could get stuck. I probably also wouldn't be inclined to stick meat directly on it because the juices could collect a bit...but really, does anyone put meat directly on their counters?

I would put it in line with other granite - you do certain things and avoid doing some others. Typically, you aren't going to have a problem. Unless it's a stone that would have issues also if it were polished - and certainly the leathering process won't help you defeat the stone's natural qualities. :)

thanks for the detailed descriptions of the differences! much appreciated! I am in the process of calling around and seems that the leathered typhoon bordeaux is a tough find! :( we have a lot of granite places around too! ...