I had it. Loved it. Never scratched. Looks amazing and everyone commented on it.

I don't know how much the finish impacts on scratch-ability, but I do know that stones with a lot of mica in them tend to scratch more readily than ones without. Mica is softer than other stone(s). Our Labrador Golden flake has a few visible surface scratches (after 4 years of use), but it still looks absolutely beautiful.

Take a closer look. I'd bet it was the key leaving metal streaks on the granite rather than the granite scratching.

Detroit, I have Leathered "Antique Brown" for my center island. The first fabricator I had, broke off a piece of slab that looked just like that scratched one above. They had one slab break on delivery of the completed product and then the second one was too brittle for them to cut.

At that point I went with another fabricator. The new fabricator had a lot of experience working with this stone. I was thrilled when it came. I have had it a year and no scratching. It is a different finish than the sample from the first fabricator. I may be wrong, but I think the first was honed and the second was leathered. I'm not sure and I don't know about the consistency of naming the finishes by the fabricators.

My sample piece was very smooth and nonshiny. My counter now is nonshiny, but it has more texture to it than in the sample.

vsalz - i love it too, but disappointed with the sample's performance, that said, stones qualities vary even when they have the same name

cat_mom - i love your kitchen, it looks like my current house which i have always loved, DH wanted less modern look for new house, i'll be sad to let my slab doors with horizontal grain go...

live_wire_oak - this is EXACTLY what happened, no furrows, just metalic streaks that looks like scratch in certain light from a specific direction, that is why i took the two pics and left water on part of the sample, and i had to angle it to capture the scratch/streak. so, is this removable?? i scrubbed it with soap and water and it stayed.

doonie - the slab place refers to the finish as satin. if i run my fingers over it, i can feel where the different toned chunks meet. it is as smooth and 'soft' feeling as the soap stone slabs, but lacks the shiny surface. i'm not sure if satin/leather/honed are really different things?

Thanks to all of you so far for your time and input, please chime in on removing the metal streaks, i like this stone, but i still have some more stone yards (in michigan it's really stone buildings) to visit... and miles to go before i sleep

I can only chime in on polished Antique Brown. But we've had it for six years and it's just as gorgeous as the day it was installed. And we don't baby our counter in the least.

I've looked at this stone before, in a leathered finish. It's really lovely. Leathered is a different finish than honed.

My only contribution would be to suggest using a granite cleaner to see if what LWO said is true. Soap and water didn't work, but maybe granite cleaner will?

Also, is there another stone yard that you can check to find another slab that isn't like your sample?

Try some soft scrub. It has a mild abrasive that won't hurt the granite. You get those same metal marks on a cast iron sink bridge. It happens because the granite is harder than the metal, so some of the metal is left behind on the granite when it rubs against metal. It's not something that happens very much in real life on counters. You don't drag one of your pots or pans across the counter with force. The only exception would be your copper pans, which are pretty soft and can abrade a bit if dragged across your counter with some contents giving it added weight.

If you use trivets and cutting boards (as ALL counter manufacturers and fabricators recommend) you'll be fine with your choice.

I also have specified Antique Brown (Brown Antique aka) polished. It's a more difficult granite to work with because of all the mica or quartz in it, which makes it gorgeous by the way! GC got a REALLY good fabricator to do this, cuz it's not easy to fabricate and it's a softer material than some others, but definitely worth it for the look. Have not heard of scratching before, hmmm

Here's some photo's of my counter. I use cutting boards, but this leathered Antique Brown is the work horse surface of my kitchen. I do not baby it and have not had any scratching issues. I hope this helps some of you:)