Elkay does custom work, although I've never seen it.

I'd recommend going with a local fabricator. I can make recommendations in Detroit and San Francisco if you're around one of those places...

I recommend rangecraft hoods for custom metal work to people I meet. They ship anywhere. They do a lot of different types of metals and finishes. They are in New Jersey.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rangecraft custom metal hoods and countertops

Thanks very much to Dave in Orlando and Fori, our Fori. Frankly, tonite, I have been re thinking stainless counters and whether I'd be happy due to scratching, expected, but denting, not so expected. I am thinking that the cumulative result will appear to be banged up and trashed counters -

It probably will depend on the thickness (gauge) of stainless.

The thick stainless steel used in commercial worktables is very hard to dent. Those are usually around 14 gauge or 0.08 inch. I don't know what gauge is used in residential counters, it's probably up to the customer. I'll bet some with steel counters will chime in, or have chimed in on other threads.

As reference, a thick, heavy French copper pot might be 3mm or 0.12 inch thick - so anything around 0.10 inch is really a thick piece of metal.

I suspect that whatever actually dents a thick stainless steel counter will likely crack or chip stone, marble, soapstone, tile, etc.

You could get a sample piece, use it on your counter for awhile, etc.

No denting on mine. And yes I still have that retro habit of banging jars on my counter to loosen the seal. I cook with cast iron. I have plywood under the metal (some kind of MDF under the previous ones). It's undentable. Anything that would dent that would cause a much more severe trauma on any other surface.

My current counters are 16 gauge--that is heavy, and I only have that because of the SINK. But think about the SS sinks on the market--they are usually lighter gauge and they don't dent either. A counter with a solid substrate is not gonna dent!

Fori, how have your steel counters done as far as scratching, gouging, dulling, etc?

Was 16 gauge an unusual thickness for your counter fabricator, do you think?

FYI for westsider, higher gauge is thinner - it is confusing - so 16 gauge is a tiny bit thinner than the 14 gauge commercial worktable I mentioned.

I found a local fabricator for our countertop. Can't remember what gauge it is-I went with their recommendation, but it would take some serious effort to dent it. Our countertop was put in in August of 2009. It is on our island and gets lots of use from our large family. By now, it has developed a fine network of little scratches just like we expected.
No dents, however, or gouging, or dulling. I did get some rust on it once, when a cast iron skillet was left on it while damp, but that buffed off with little effort with some barkeepers friend and a microfiber rag.

John, my fabricator was assuming he'd be using 18 until I mentioned cast iron and then suggested 16 gauge. I'm sure it's overkill since you rarely see a dented SS sink and most are 18 or thinner and I don't throw around my cast iron--it's fragile! I don't remember what gauge we had in our previous kitchen--probably thinner.

Anyway it's patinaing? patinating? developing a patina. We started with a brushed surface and fully intended to scratch it up. So it is sort of dulled, but not in a bad way (to us). If we wanted, we could scrub it all into a brushed finish again, but who'd want that? The sink is pretty scratched because it's a sink but again I could polish it back to a satin if I wanted. I could probably jump in the sink and dent it but it would probably pop back. (It sometimes flexes when I pour a big pot of boiling water in it with a nice bang. I don't know why I enjoy that.)

I thought I got a gouge when my electric stable gun was jammed and I was hammering it on the counter. But I guess it was just a scratch. Can't find it now. Probably shouldn't do that, though.

I hear 18 gauge WILL DENT if you spray the kitchen with 29gr milspec armor piercing ammo. Given johnliu's crowd control needs, he may need to rethink.

Frigo Designs uses 14 gauge and may use others as well. Most or all Ticor sinks are 16. I wonder how important it is to match the gauge of the sink to the counter.

Another issue in this project is undermount or overmount sink to weld with the sheet metal. I've had two different opinions from two owners of fabricating cos. Undermount wouldn't have all that excess material.

John, I understand the gauge system. It's not confusing. Not quantum physics.

Thank goodness there are no glass sinks, omg, of course there are! But kitchen sinks?

They do need to be heavy gauge if they aren't supported by plywood...on the topic of sinks, if you're going through the trouble to get metal counters, why not have a sink fabricated to your exact specifications?

My fabricator said he'd weld in a purchased sink if I wanted one, but did specify a North American or European brand because some of the cheaper imports were a different composition and you wouldn't get as good a weld. The rim of the sink would be removed so it didn't matter if it was an over or undermount.