Wow, 6 cm chiseled! I can't wait to see pictures of what you find. That sounds so rustically elegant and beautiful. Are there many suppliers that have 6 cm slabs in your area?

Antique brown (Marron Cohiba) - From what I have seen, polished appears much browner, leathered reads dark gray from a distance, but the variations of the large grains are so intriguing that it is a beautiful stone. The biggest problem is the multiple veins that tend to run through it. I actually had a couple of slabs delivered to my fabricators but they weren't willing to take the risk. Maybe a thicker slab would not be as prone to potential chips and cracks during fabrication. However, I looked at it in every possible light -- warehouse, sunlight, spotlight, and it always read more gray. See if you can find leathered anywhere. jrueter has this in her kitchen and it definitely reads dark gray. She also said that the veins are only an issue in fabrication, not in installation. So my warning on that one is find someone who is willing to take on the liability if something happens during fabrication.

I had never heard of Titanium, but the pics I saw look close to the Cosmic Black (or Cosmos -- I got a sample of this but it was too varied and too much motion for me).

I don't know Nordic Brown unless it's the same as Nordic Black. We looked at Atlantic Black in antiqued, but it showed streaks/fingerprints. At one supplier, Absolute Black honed was also beautiful and felt good, and didn't show the fingerprints the way I expected; at another supplier it showed streaks and fingerprints like the Atlantic Black.

I think I saw Matrix in polished at one of our suppliers. It was on my short list if it came down to it, but I didn't note anything in particular about it.

Matrix Motion is another, similar to Cosmos. I only saw it in polished and didn't look closely.

We ended up going with Impala Black leathered. I saw it in polished at the fabricator's showroom and it was too light for me, plus I really wanted a matte finish. I found the leathered at the last minute while they were looking at the Marron Cohiba to decide whether they were brave enough or not. It is very uniform and apparently easy to cut. (I could hear the collective sigh of relief at the fabricators' shop when I changed to that one.)

It's been in a week and I love it.

I had others on the list that I gave my fabricator but I can't find that anywhere.

HTH!

No, I don't think there's such a thing as 6cm slabs... to do a 6cm chiseled edge they either laminate two 3cm's together, or they use a 2cm edge and laminate/miter the rest on - I think?

Yes, Black Nordic must be it... my wife is only interested in polished - no leathered/honed, I'm wondering if those will leave too many fingerprints or show dust too much?

I thought so but I wasn't sure about the 6 cm. There's so much I don't know.

Many people have had issues with fingerprints and dust with the darker polished granites, but some have not as well. I guess we all have our preferences... I thought I was set on quartz but in the end decided I absolutely did not want a shiny finish. Has she looked at and touched the other finishes? I assume so; it sounds like you've visited several places, which means you could not have avoided meeting a few matte finishes. Is it mainly the look of polished or something else?

I think I saw a quartz with a chiseled edge on the company's website. I think it was Cambria. Have you looked at that option?

My polished Antique Brown countertops have been in since September, and I'm still crazy about them!

A couple of weeks after they went in I noticed a crack running from the edge about 14" in - I promptly had a heart attack! The fabricator came out, denied all responsibility for it, but he did fix it. Unless you really look for it you'd never know it was there.

Then on Easter weekend, my husband dropped a carving tool on the edge, and a chip came out. Back came the fabricator and he filled it ($40), and again, unless you knew it was there you wouldn't notice it. My edges are eased, so almost straight, with a rounder edge it wouldn't have happened.

I've heard it's very brittle so can be susceptible to chips, so that might explain the crack and the chip, but I've also been told that it's very, very strong and will never need sealing, and it won't stain.

If I just use a dish cloth to wash it down and a towel to dry it, you can see streaks, so it needs a microfibre cloth. When I first had it installed I was doing it three times a day, now I'm lucky to do it once a week. Having company forces me to do it more often! It's amazing what you just don't see after a while.

Really inspect your slab - this isn't one of those you want to buy without seeing the piece you're going to get. I wanted one without large white veins, and fortunately my KD was able to find me a great piece.

So those are the things I'd be aware of, but having said all that, I just love it! Mine is very dark, almost black, in fact it reads black unless you're close to it, and then it's very, very, very dark bown, darker than cocoa powder. I love the crazy little white lines all through it. It's just a really interesting granite in a quiet, laid-back kind of way.

I can't think of anything else to tell you about it, except to repeat that it really looks wonderful. However, if it continues to chip, I might have a different opinion in six months or a year. Make sure you ask your fabricator about that. Hopefully, we've just had a bit of bad luck and it'll never happen again.

Good luck with your choice.

sm30, thanks for the great reply.
Yes, we've seen hundreds of slabs, and DW wants polished/shine. It sounds like you have a Brown Antique that is more black than brown - we've seen some that are very brown, some more black, but none that are really black... although it's tough to tell without seeing it turned parallel to the ground and in the right light.

Well, we've been to all of the places in our city, and it seems the ones with good Black Cosmic have it sold (on hold with large company buyers with good history)... so I think we'll be going with Black Antique.

I've had nordic black antiqued in my kitchen for over 5 years. It's the lowest maintenance thing in my house. It doesn't show anything. In fact, I've put my hand in yucky stuff because I didn't see it first.

We put any food or drink on it. We don't worry about crafts projects or really any household projects on it. I've dropped stuff on it and knocked the edges, esp the edge above the dishwasher, and it's not cracked or chipped.

We have marble on our island. It's etched quite a bit, but I stopped caring about the etching a long time ago. There are times that I'll make a point of doing something on the granite rather than the marble. Like I'll tell the kids to mix the salsa or squeeze the lemons on the granite. I clean it with whatever I want too. I don't use products with bleach too often on the countertops, but I don't worry at all about using it when I need to on the granite (eg spilled raw chicken juice).

I remember the nordic black antiqued slabs varied quite a bit from one to the next. I needed two slabs and found two I really liked (and looked alike).

I should mention that the 2nd lowest maintenance thing in my house is the blanco silgranite sink that's undermounted to the black granite. I got the big single black sink, and I think it looks great with the granite.

Good luck!