Donho- I'm NOT going to ask the obvious question that you're prolly SICK of getting asked... like in the scene from "Office Space" where the "Bobs" are interviewing Michael and they ask him... "So..... are ya related?"... HA! Anyways - back to topic... What YOU are experiencing is the exact reason why for almost a decade I was a crusader against doing honed Absolute Black - for that very reason. I did three kitchens all at the same time - for the same client. He built three spec homes, and we did honed AB in all three, and they had the same exact issue that you are having. In fact - I was on my way up to Scottsdale on a bright sunny Tuesday morning to look over the work and listen to his complaint when the meeting was postponed in light of the events that taken place earlier that morning in New York, Washington & Pennsylvania - the date that day - was September 11th, 2001... You always remember what you were doing and where you were when events like that happen - President Kennedy's assassination , Neil Armstrong on the Moon, Challenger Blowing up, President Reagan getting shot, etc - I was going to look at "what the heck my customer was supposed to do about ALL THREE of his kitchens that had honed AB in them" on the morning of 9/11.... Anyways - there IS good news for you on your problem - and in my opinion - NEITHER an enhancer nor a sealer is going to help you in this situation - I have tried both without a great deal of success on Honed AB...... HOWEVER................. You CAN use Method Daily Granite Polish - it is ALL NATURAL and you apply it every day for around two weeks - after which time - you will have built up a "patina" of coconut oil - the active ingredient that will help to prevent the natural oils in your fingers from showing up on the stone and creating the smudges... MANY people have found that Method Daily Granite Polish DOES work in this situation!!!! I learned about this technique right her on GW from some of the home owners that had the VERY SAME problem tha you have!!!! try it....... hth kevin

Like a lot of you, I love soapstone and I lovethe look of antiqued nordic black. We drove over to a soapstone place in vermont yesterday (Green Mountain Soapstone). Their stone was lovely, BUT, because our counter is an L with a diagnol due to a lazy susan, they wanted to charge us for the whole rectangle( and not just the L) - this means an extra 50% is sf-age - feels like a rip-off. So I went to home depot, where theyhave asoapstone called Savonpierre - anybody know much about this? Its a lot less expensive, but I'm nervous because nobidy gets soapstone athome depot. Nordic Black makes me nervous because the edges atthe stone yard awlays look crumbly and I think becuase itsa large grained granite, its not going to be as tough as Abs. black (smaller is stronger!!). Sorry for the info dump. But am having a hardtime deciding. Any thoughts? btw, we have a modest kitchen with a simple L counter and and about 25 actual sq.ft of counter. Thanks a bunch Vidya

Make sure your "black" granite isn't dyed or it my be gray when it's honed.

The marks you see are physical etching to the surface from by the looks either a strong bleach product or drain cleaner. Why it is getting worse, we would say that someone has repaired or attempted to hide the marks using a bandaid solution . By adding some like like baby oil or white oil to the surface. This will disguise the issue for a short period though as you clean the surface it will dissolve the oils out and leaving the white spots or marks again. Being Matte you will be able to use a special microporosity impregnating sealer that will solve the issue. Other than having it properly repaired by a stonemason. You will need to do the following steps Clean the entire countertops with acetone. Remove any contamination on grante Apply the Ager to the white spots or marks first with kitchen paper Allow to penetrate for 5 minutes Apply the Ager to the whole countertop - this will make it uniform in colour Allow to penetrate for 5 mintue Follow the directions on the tin to remove excess Allow to cure out, you can speed this process up with a hair dryer. The products you will need are Acetone - 1 Quartz Tenax Ager Clean white cloth Kitchen Paper or Towel If you get stuck or would like more information email us at stains@stonebenchtopcleaner.com.au Uniblack is the wrong product to use in this application will make it blacker in areas and patchy being honed or leathered granite, the acetone will take this back out.