Hi All,

This is a continuation from: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg090718548510.html?10

I picked a slab of honed virginia mist. At templating, I found three areas of fine linear scratches (each area about 5 x 5 inches). My fabricator said he could not get the scratches out and he couldn't re-hone the whole slab. He offered me a refund and said he would return the stone to the distributor, and assumed the scratches occurred in transit.

I then called around to other fabricators and found one who said he would pick up the granite from the other fabricator, re hone the whole slab (for $400) and then fabricate my project. He said re honing is "no problem" Several other fabricators said they would not re hone.

The new fabricator has been in business for 22 years. He has one angle's list review (A). He is not a BBB member, but he has an A+ rating.

Several gardenwebbers have pointed out that I am taking on a lot of risk. This scares me. On the one hand, we've been without a kitchen for a year and I need to get this done. On the other hand, I'm on a budget like everyone else and if this goes poorly, I'm in big trouble.

Trebruchet weighed in with the advice that light scratches can be removed from a honed granite. So far, I have not found a fabricator who will do that, only the one fabricator who will re-hone the whole slab.

So my questions are:
-does re-honing in a shop result in a worse or different finish than factory re-honing?
-is it possible that the shop re-honing will look bad (based on this person's skill, experience, etc)
-what do I need to ask and look out for?
-am I missing a better way to deal with this situation?
-have other folks had their factory honed granite re-honed in a shop?

Many thanks,
kb