I don't have it but a good friend of mine does. It does show fingerprints a lot. The woman at the granite place told me she would never choose it for that reason.

I am also looking for a matte black countertop and found Cambrian Black Antique. The surface is slightly textured, matte and doesn't show fingerprints at all. We spent a weekend trying to hurt the sample and couldn't do it. I also love the look of soapstone, but I don't want the maintenance it requires.

I have black honed on all my perimeter counters. I too, got all the warnings. Everyone said I would hate them, especially with7 kids still at home. Did almost change my mind.
We have lived here 3 months @ I love them. Absolutely no regrets. We sealed, and simply wash with soapy dishcloth, rinse& dry. They look great.

Thank you, acountry farm and cncnh, for your responses. I live in Los Angeles and am now on the path to find Cambrian Black Antiqued as so many people seem to love it and see it as fitting for this old house. I wonder if anyone knows where I could get it. Is it really expensive? How do they make it look right on the edges? The cut surface of these "textured" granites are so different in look from the tops.

I love my honed granite countertop. The granite is called
JetMist. It is a grey charcoal black color. Not the solid
black you may want. We looked at Cambria Black because my
close friend had just put this brand in her kitchen. It
was more expensive than we wanted to spend.

Cambria on Craig's list in LA is about $50 sq foot. I did
a quick search but could not tell you of installers in
the CA area.

I believe that Honed Absolute Black granite has issues
as far as smudges for some people.
Maybe if you did a search on GW you might find
more answers.

Question for Deee and anyone with honed black granite
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/decor/msg0614171215824.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Thinking of honed black granite.....good or bad idea?

Hi--I just posted my kitchen--someone asked about the granite, honed Uba Tuba, and those pix are at the end. We had polished before but I love the honed. The maintenence is nothing--just wipe with a sponge. I think having the color variations makes it easier to keep looking good, so I would look for something like that. The Uba Tuba reads black from farther away. Also, I would have liked to have a straighter edge as I think that looks more true to the period.

I have also seen some honed granite that looks like lighter soapstone--greenish-gray--I think Mamadadapaige has it (in the FKB?).

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: pix of my kitchen w/ granite

I don't see any issues with honed granite. Especially Absolute black. Yes, you might need to wipe it a bit more often than other colors but from my experience, it shows LESS dirt/smudges/fingerprints than polished black. Below is a link to a honed absolute black kitchen we did a few years back. I knew the owner of the house personally and she had similar concerns before the purchase.

Here is a link that might be useful: Absolute Black Kitchen Video

I've been looking for opinions on this myself.

I have a sample of honed AB (not sealed or enhanced) I've been trying to test, and it seems to have held up just fine vs. the polished AB regarding fingerprints, cooking acids & water spots.

Unfortunately, the sample is pathetically small (barely 3"sq), so I'm having a tough time judging.

I do remember November posting about suceess with honed AB, but I'd like to see other opinions as well.