I wish I could be of real help. I just wanted to mention that ketchup is likely to etch anything that can be etched as one of its main ingredients is vinegar.

I have honed Carrara countertops in my kitchen that were honed by the fabricator. I have had absolutely no problems with staining. The only thing that recently gave me a start was some pollen from some lilys I has on the counter...that stuff is very "stainy!" Believe it or not, it came out when I applied bleach to the stain with a Q-tip. No ill effects to the stone. Nothing else has been a bit of trouble, Vinegar, lemon juice, lime juice....yes, they will all cause etches, as will other things. The etches are less noticeable in the honed finish. But to answer your question...the sealer seems to work just fine on my honed finish.

Nini804, that lily pollen is the worst! I'm so glad it came out of your stone. Bleach and a cotton swab, great idea. I don't know if there is a sealer on earth that could repel lily pollen. Also, it's good to hear fabricator honing has worked for you.

Crl_, I will certainly bring some ketchup with me for the test.

Anyone else have advice?

I have a honed, hand-polished carrara island top, and I love it--it looks very soft and mellow. However, it seems that the beauty of some of the quartzites is the translucent depth that's achieved with a high polish. Will the stone appear as pretty if it's honed? And I suppose that the answer to that is subjective, so, will you think it's as pretty honed? Can you find a honed sample, or ask the fabricator to hone a sample for your approval?

I use my carrara for rolling out dough, so it's never been sealed, and I've had no problems with staining. My grandson once spilled a packet of red powdered drink mix on it (someone included the packet in a party treat bag O.O), at which point I thought I'd have to tell everyone that I deliberately chose pink marble for my kitchen. But it all came off, good as new!

When it comes to honing, I am not sure that marble is even a good comparison. Quartzite is much harder than marble (isn't quartzite supposed to be harder than granite?) and will take a hone differently than marble will.

Ditto to mama goose's suggestion: see if your fabricator will hone a sample to let you take home. We're considering Black Pearl, and DH recently chimed in that he HATES how distracting a polished surface would be. Our fabricator honed 1/2 of a BP piece, leaving the other end polished. Right off the bat, I noticed my fingerprint smudges all over the honed part. He sealed the honed end on-site and sent us home with it. We've walked it all over the kitchen and have been able to view it in different lighting, times of day, etc. Best of all, the sealant worked: I left a plop of canola oil on the honed part overnight, and it wiped off fine the next day -- no absorption.

Most of the quartzites I see on GW are leathered or antiqued (don't know the difference) and from what I've read that helps to make the stone more impermeable. A leathered finish is soft and matte like a honed. Have you considered that option?

About the black pearl, I had honed black pearl in my previous kitchen. Because it's a very dense stone, it's hard to hone. So, although it was definitely and obviously honed, it had a slight sheen but it was very soft and lovely.

jerzeegirl: DH actually fell in love with a leathered surface, but the one sample (different stone, of course) at the shop had too many pits in it -- deep enough holes where I'd have difficulty digging embedded flour/gunk out (I bake from scratch a ton!). So, a good jumping off point (to remove ourselves from polished/shiny) was honed. Our guy has every machine/tool on-site, so his worker honed the 3"x8" strip in a matter of minutes. I hear that going the next step (leathering) would/should bring back some of the sheen and depth that I love BP for, so that's where we're headed with our next visit -- our fabricator is very patient and, most importantly, wants to be sure we get exactly what we want. We'll ask him if he can't process a lightly leathered piece, if there's such a thing. That said, we've fallen in love with the honed -- soft as butter!

Thanks y'all for the feedback. I'm off tomorrow to see the honed sample, taking red wine, salad dressing, etc.

I don't want to be one of those people who keeps asking the same question until the person hears the desired answer. I really want to know if honing this quartzite will make it more susceptible to stains.

loves -- How did everything go? I allowed my thoughts to wander over into the land of quartzite (completely independent of this thread), started googling 'leathered perla venata' (as one of the local stoneyards presumably has it in inventory), and ended up back here. Laugh of my day, as I thought to myself, "Hmm...now why does this thread look SO familiar?" :)

Javiwa. Thanks for asking. I hope to get "finished" photos up soon.

I must say that I ABSOLUTELY love my honed Perla Venata.

Do you have any pictures of your finished kitchen? I am debating honing Perla Venata for our kitchen as well and would love to see it!