Well, not to be too mean spirited, but, yes, it is a dumb question (your words, not mine). It means just exactly what it says - they are growing on their own roots; they are NOT grafted onto the root stock of another plant. Most roses that you will find in a nursery today are grafted onto Dr. Huey, Multiflora, or some other root stock. Own root roses are growing on their own roots which makes them true, and not suceptible to winter kill or suckering from the host stock. Sometimes, after a few years, in the ground, grafted roses will revert, that is to say, the garfted tops will die, and the root stock will continue to grow and produce an entirely different rose then the one you originally purchased. If there is die back of the top of an own root rose due to cold winter temps, the rose will come back from its roots and be true. I hope you unuderstand this now. I do not fault you for asking what you felt was a dumb question, because asking questions is how we learn. Oh, and never apologise for asking.

I am no Joshua, but I think the only real solution is abrading it with something that has absolutely no compliance. I would be tempted to treat it like a polished gem: lap it. Do you have any spare countertop material to test? This is kind of a big project, but you could try taking something flat and hard, and maybe a foot across. You could use a second piece of soapstone, or a piece of polished granite (such as a floor tile or a scrap of countertop), or some plate glass (thicker is better). Then get some abrasive, like aluminum oxide powder. This is available in many different grits. Carefully wipe your test piece to get rid of stray grit, throw some abrasive on your test piece, and make a slurry with some water. Then rub your lapping plate (the granite or whatever) around over this in randomish directions. You may need to use progressively finer grits to get the large bumps out (needing coarser grit) and to get the sheen you want (needing finer grits).

Pardon the massiveness (yes I made up that word) :oP of this silly hood but it had to cover a big range: I believe we're 34" off the surface, but since it's just recently been all set up, I'll go ahead and do a measurement for sure and post it this evening. We spent a lot of time on the phone with vent a hood when we had this rebuilt (we ordered a standard 1200 cfm and then took the guts out of the box and had the box rebuilt by a local stainless steel fabricator). We made sure that the power was going to be sufficient and wanted to increase capture space front to back as well as side to side. We couldn't go with a standard US measurement on a hood due to space issues and conversion from the french range size. It's mounted to both the wall and hung from heavy chains wrapped around the beams in the ceiling. Three heavy guys did pull ups from it :) It's not coming down. It was a chore though to see it hung well. It vents out the back through a wall, but it was far too heavy even in it's metal stage to use that as the only support. Then once we applied the marine plywood, plaster, trim and granite detail..well she's a heavy girl :) One thing I did (I hope it shows here...if not I'll take another photo) is to bump out the counter to meet the front of the stove. I did that to avoid the obvious "hip meets square edge" of the stove, and it also serves to keep you from losing an eye on the hood if you're tall enough :) Actually here's a pic that shows the bump out better. It flows so well this way:

"We have eventually come up with the idea of removing the bump-out and making the exterior wall straight, which means we could extend that wall of cabinets about 7 extra feet, almost doubling the space for counters, cabinets, and appliance" If you do that, install windows at counter-height, not above the counter (or below it). Keep in mind that you do need some wall space for tall appliances such as: Refrigerator Range/Cooktop + Hood Wall ovens (if you have them) Pantry - although a built-in/drywalled pantry is much more functional than pantry cabinets - but built-ins need wall space as well. So, don't eliminate all walls! You might consider a smaller window if you redo the bumpout to add wall space to the Kitchen. It might cheaper to just replace the windows in the bumpout so the bumpout is usable - maybe eliminate the side windows so you could put the refrigerator in the bumpout - it would put the refrigerator closer to the DR. . (Just brainstorming right now!)