I don;t have a specific answer to your question but:
I'd be a little leery that your fabricator has never done what you are asking them to do.

Is it correct to assume they've honed other stones just not quartzite?

Actually they don't hone at all. They have a third party fabricator who hones for them. They've never had anyone ask for honed quartzite before.

If it actually is quartzite, then honing won't affect etching one way or another. Genuine quartzite does not etch. Marble that is sold as quartzite does.

In general, polished stones do resist staining a little bit more than they otherwise might. But the surface treatment doesn't change the properties of the rock. If it's a porous rock, it will still be porous either way. A sealer will help to take care of that.

How do you tell if it's really quartzite? Should I just sneak in like a terrorist with a lemon?

Totally. A lemon-wielding terrorist. If you do that and get caught, then we'll all get searched for wayward citrus fruits at the airports from now on. So don't get caught. :)

Or, refer to the Sea Pearl thread where I gave instructions for how to do the tests at the slab yard.

Based on the wrong info you're getting from your salesperson and fabricator, I wouldn't be taking their word on the matter. Definitely try to do the tests if at all possible.

Absolutely do the test! Can you ask for a sample? That said, those slabs look identical to my quartzite counters, so I think you're good. What do they call the stone and where is it from? Best be safe and test though!

I prefer honed as well, but didn't go there with the quartzite, so I can't advise you I'm afraid.

Unfortunately they don't have any samples. I'm afraid I'm just going to have to go undercover....

Thanks for the tips M, I mean karin!

Kiwi gem, kinda off topic, but are you in H town? I think I saw your slab!!

twobelles, i don't know what H town is, so I'm guessing that's a no :-)

Twobelles,
If that is Houston, would you mind telling me where you found those look-alike slabs?

The name's Gem, Kiwi Gem......

Mission accomplished. I went to the stoneyard with my little spy kit and the slab passed with flying colors. Scratched the heck out of an olive jar and after having a soaked cotton ball soaked in vinegar pressed against it for five minutes it didn't leave a single mark. Thanks, Karin!!!

So now to decide if I should hone it... I'm scared just from a visual perspective. My house is going to be painted entirely in Benjamin Moore white dove. Will the stone be too beige? If we hone it will it look more beige? I don't care if the stone goes greyish, but beige might bum me out a little. The lighting in the stoneyard is criminal. Such a commitment!

Sochi, is there a thread with photos of your quartzite?

Nice job Gem! I love your covert tactics, that's perfectly awesome.

That slab is a beauty. It's so perfect as-is I think I'd be inclined to leave it just as it is. A little shine and bling will do well in a white interior, IMO.

Plus, what if they hone it and somehow ruin it? A stone in the hand is worth.... two in the fabricator's shop. So to speak. :)

Look up threads with White Macaubus (and there are spelling variants of this) to find examples of how others have used it.

I would get it honed. I really like the honed look.

Hi Kiwigem, congratulations on your covert actions! Sounds like you have the real deal there. I'm attaching the reveal thread for my kitchen, four plus years old but there are a few good shots of the quartzite there. I will see if I can find an old picture of the slab. Truly the colours and markings on your slab look almost identical to mine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sochi's city kitchen

Mine is a little more linear comparing the two now, but clearly they are related. :)

I'd love to see you hone them, as I too prefer honed but didn't go there in the end. That said, I would be a tiny bit nervous. Be sure that whoever will be honing them understands that quartzite is MUCH harder than granite. This may not make a difference, but they should know they aren't dealing with granite here.

Thanks everyone! I think I am going to step into the breech and go for it... for the good of all :-)
Sochi- I LOVE your kitchen! It's even white and walnut like mine is going to be! That gives me a lot of confidence, thank you! It's funny trying to commit to something like this, because to me the slab reads mostly white, but it's truly not white at all. It's more like an ultra light greige. Is that how you would describe yours?

PS- I hope this was assumed, but I feel I must point out that I did all testing on the VERY EDGE of the slab which would be trimmed of in the fabrication process. I wasn't going to risk etching the slab for other people if I declined it.

This post was edited by Kiwigem on Tue, Dec 9, 14 at 16:39

Absolutely. I thought it was white until it was installed. It certainly reads white when next to deeper colours, but in reality it is gray, with streaks of gray/green and even blue/gray, some beige too. I'm sure you'll love it, I'm looking forward to seeing it.

I have polished white macaubus quartzite on my island. The only place I ever saw a honed slab was in a photograph on Houzz. I'll try to find it again and post it here. I've never seen one in person.

Here's all I could find. Hard to see and who knows if it's really quartize. Could be marble.

Maybe you could see a slab of honed marble. That might give you a general idea. I did see some of those while I was stone hunting, but no honed quartzite.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.houzz.com/projects/528569/white-quartzite-kitchen

Yes, H is Htown. I was recently at Designer Stone (last week)and they have several bundles of WM. They had some displayed w almost identical veining. Look carefully though, bc one bundle had some peachy tones. HTH!

This looks like white macaubus quartzite. The designer says it's honed.

Here is a link that might be useful: [honed quartzite[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/south-tampa-kitchens-traditional-kitchen-tampa-phvw-vp~4861005)

You were debating/lamenting the takeover of the non shiny finishes in your kitchen, so I'd leave it polished. Although Karin is absolutely correct that honing doesn't change the basic nature of the stone, it's slightly incorrect to say that it doesn't change how it behaves once honed.

Even the man made quartz industry has run into issues with honed versions of their product. Many don't offer it any longer, or make you sign a waiver abut it showing fingerprints and oils more, and being more difficult to clean.

The culprit isn't the nature of the stone. It's the texture. Honing involves scarifying the polished surface with coarse to finer abrasives, stopping sort of achieving a polish. It's repolishing, but not taking it all the way shiny. The thing about what that does, is it leaves lots of microscopic scratches that grab and hold onto oils and dirt more than a polished surface will do.

If you do decide to go down the honed road, PLEASE insist on a sample before you do the whole slab. I'd really hate to see that beautiful slab ruined, and I do not have a good feeling about the third party farming out of the job. But if he has done this before, then he surely has samples of the remnants that he can show you and that you can test for yourself for cleanability. Even if it's a different honed granite, the surface itself will behave similarly.

Hey live wire. Yes I was concerned about there not being enough shine, but I didn't want to add it with the counter :-) The good news is the fabricator has offered to obtain a sample and have it honed so we can be sure. Updates to come!

Twobelles,
Thank you.

Kiwigem,
There used to be a poster on the StoneForums named Mauricio. He is now deceased, but he lived for stone and was proudly opinionated about it. He stated repeatedly that only highly polished, AKA shiny, stone should be used in kitchens, for the reasons LWO mentions above. There is a reason that highly polished stone originally became the norm for kitchen surfaces. (It will dull over time with hard water deposits, centuries of use, etc., and can be repolished by a stone restorer, but starting out polished is a safer route.) I don't wish to incur a hail of offended responses here, nor do I want to interfere with the obvious pleasure many posters here take in their honed and leathered surfaces, but I did want to voice another perspective. Full disclosure: I do like polished stone and am attracted to the contrasts and features brought out by the polishing process. DH, who knew nothing about leathered surfaces until a recent visit to a stone yard, was immediately attracted to some leathered Fantasy Brown marble. Both of us loved rubbing our hands across it, but I did discuss other possible issues with him. I didn't have my Karen-kit with me, but I suspect that it was really marble, as billed.

The information about stone is very confusing. There's another thread going on right now about leathered/honed quartzite, and a poster on there says that their leathered white macaubus quartzite has etches on it and that is to be expected.

I have polished WM quartzite and it does not etch or stain. It's not marble. I thought I understood that real quartzite does not etch; why should it matter if it is leathered or honed or polished?

Maybe a stone expert can weigh in on this. Our island had cranberry sauce on it for 3 days after Thanksgiving, under an elevated cutting board, so I didn't see if for a while. That cranberry wiped right off with spit and my sleeve. We've never had a stain or an etch.

If honing or leathering does matter to quartzite, then people considering that type of finish need to know. But I think Karin (counterops thread) said the finish wouldn't affect that.

Still confused...

I agree strayer it's confusing. I'm hoping to get a sample honed first so I have some idea of how it will behave. It doesn't seem as though the inherent properties of the stone should change just because the amount of polish changes, but I'm certainly not an expert...

Strayer,

Yes, the basic confusion is still really about quartzite vs marble. Genuine quartzite doesn't etch, regardless of the honing, polishing, etc. But so many quartzites and marbles are mixed up that I'd suspect that any reports of quartzites etching are because they are actually marble. It's about the rock type, not the surface treatment.

I agree with LWO's clarification. The smooth surface helps stains wipe off. The non-smooth surface retains spilled materials in the irregularities in the surface, that makes sense.

Hope that helps!

Hi Kiwigem, I'm now looking up honed vs. polished for White Macaubus. Which did you choose and how is it working out? Thanks so much.