http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2499581/marble-quartzite-and-other-rocks-in-the-kitchen?n=156 That is the link you want. karin_mt is some kinf of geologist and not in the business. His original post was about looking for super white quartzite and not agreeing that it was even a quartzite, its more similar to marble. He explains the tests you need to do in the first post and I think he has like 6 or 7 threads going. I just tested out our sample of super white "quartzite"... We put red wine, ketch-up, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and a slide of lemon. We left everything for about 5 minutes and wiped it off and saw very very very faint etching, you could only see it on one extreme angle. We left everything overnight and there were no stains, only etching. The worst etching was from the actual slice of lemon and you could see a faint out line. We also noticed that the grey parts didn't etch as much as the lighter areas, no clue why. We did the glass test and it easily scratched a glass bottle. I've been agonizing over this for a few days and would highly suggest getting a sample from the yard and doing your own experiment with what you would cook with. Only thing left for me to try is heat.

I like that pendant. (I'm looking for something similar to replace my beloved pendants over my peninsula that have some issues so I popped over to the CB website.) Are you OK with the low light output? 25 watts is very low. My two glass pendants have 60 watt bulbs and seem like just enough light. Fewer would not be sufficient. Hope I didn't burst your bubble. It's so hard to find just the right pendant shape, in just the right size, with just the right lumens, at just the right price!

He is going to seal it but has recommended 511 or stonetech. He had no preference. He has never worked with super white before. It came out great but he did say he felt it was softer than granite I guess I'll just go with the stonetech.

Hi all, looking for some advise. We recently had our kitchen redone and it looks beautiful. We went with what the stoneyard called calacatta ("quartzite")... but it seems a lot of this stone is marketed under super white. I know there is a lot of discussion on this forum about what this stone actually is. Aside from all of the issues, it is truly beautiful and i will add pictures later. Here is my issue- i had a marble slab with rubber feet on the counter, and from moving it, the rubber feet left drag marks on the countertop which do not come out WITH ANYTHING. So thats issue one, why rubber feet marked my super shiny top. I dont think my fabricator knows much about this stone, because he came back to seal after the backsplash work was done and then said sealing for this stone wasnt necessary. But he did use a tanez color enhancer sealer on one portion of the counter that was looking dullish (different areas of the stone have different "shine" levels, i think this is just inherent in this particular slab). Anyway, this sealer didnt do antything to affect color on this portion of the stone. However, when used on a small portion of the very highly polished island, it left an etch mark. It didnt change the color, but when directional light hits it, you see that "shadow" which we could not remove even right after! So issue number two, why the heck did sealer seemingly etch my top? Or is it because he rubbed it into that particular spot? Or is it because it was only in one apot, and aince it ia a color enhancer as well, it should have been applied to the entire piece to avoid that blotch. Issue three is that the surface althought incredibly shiny, with directional light looks like it has greasy smudges or fingerprints all over it. Again, these dont rub out. Issue four, i did the water drop test and it did darken in one spot after a few minutes but then evaporated dry. In another spot- a less shiny area which looks almost honed, it left a slight mark. Oh and then he said the craziest thing- dont clean this with anything except windex (BLASPHEMY!!) OR some soft scrub or barkeepers. And then, im not sure, to cover his ass, he said this is partly a mandmade stone made from fragments, compressed, and glued together under pressure, which ive never heard of. I think pictures will help and ill add tomm as it is 1 am and this is keeping me up. Im sitting there like... what the heck, and obviously looking for a way to clean this up that does not involve them, they dont seem like he brightest. Any of you super white / calacatta quartzite owners have these issues? How do you clean your counters? Should i get a professional restoring sealing company who specializes in that to come look at it and see what can be done? Im scared to use my kitchen now!!Any suggestions would be truly helpful!!! Or if there are any professionals that can steer me in the right direction i would highly appreciate it!!!