Hi Joseph,

What is a pencil edge profile?

It's just the meanness knocked off a 90 degree edge.

For forum readers who want a more definitive answer to Mintcar123’s question:

No straight, cove, dupont, or ogee either, unless you round the top.

"no hot pans on any estone ever. Not for a second."

I am getting quite an education from you, Joseph! Your love of your job shines through. Salespeople really push quartz as more heat resistant than granite, Corian, and laminate, but I wonder if your experience proves otherwise. I'd love to hear if you do a lot more repairs of estone - and what is perhaps even more important - if it is more costly to repair than other materials.

THANK YOU. Thank you, thank you for your posts. This is teaching me so much. I really fear going with anything but granite. Everyone is pushing quartz on me but I never had an issue with my Virginia Jet Mist honed granite. It was just lovely and I miss it.

Love seeing this stuff Joe. I do have quartz, and am happy with it, but it’s so annoying to know how much b.s. gets floated out there, especially from sales people, about quartz, and other materials too for that matter. Experience is the best teacher.

>> I really fear going with anything but granite.>>

You shouldn't abuse granite either: http://www.unitedgranite.us/blog/2013/05/temperature-affects-granite/

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I just throw a couple of thick potholders down. Or put the pot (or whatever) on a cooling rack, which is easy to put out beforehand.

I have granite and I have never, nor would I ever, put a stove or oven hot anything on it. Why would you? Just because they say you can is not a reason to do so.

People ask us about this issue a lot. We say nothing is 100%. You spend thousands of dollars toward a stone, to extend the life...keep up with it. We also create cutting boards out of the material so it blends in and they have a place to put things without having to worry about damage to the stone.

I've had a Caesarstone counter for 6 years. It's got an eased edge all around, but since it isn't sharp, I'll assume it's the same as a pencil edge. I haven't had any problems with it at the sink, but I'm generally not careless with cast iron pans. Hot stuff on the counter? Never!

Thanks everyone. I let my pictures do the talking; there isn't really anything a quartz salesperson can say. Use trivets on all tops, please.

That's about as good as an estone hot pot repair gets.

Gosh, thank you all. All this time I assumed anything could go on granite and I can honestly say my husband and son definitely put hot pizza pans on that past granite. I really appreciate all the information as I am learning how fragile granite can be too. I still love granite and will probably put this in my next reno despite all the kitchen designers, people in the industry, cabinet makers pushing me to quartz.

Flat hot cookie sheets and the like rarely cause countertop damage, if ever. It's the concentrated heat of a hot pan with a bunch of hot stuff in it over time that does the damage.

Thanks for the heads up on countertops and hot things.

Also, thanks for the edging profile list.. I'd requested half bullnose and got full bullnose. (I let it slide, but would still have preferred the former).

cracks will also occur if a seam let's go in one area and not the rest, again can be repaired

Waterfall End crack from seam not correctly keyed

Repaired

Joseph Corlett, LLC ps we have a product that we are almost ready to release world-wide that stops heat damage and cracking from heat - Diamond Surface Armour

It is permanent, does not void any warranties and is not a sealer, film or anything else. It manipulates the quartz substructure and bonds to make it almost bulletproof. Even if it gets scratched they will self heal.

Fun hey :)

Also agree that DO NOT crazy glue or superglue chips back in, they do not even sit level or flush, plus they will get a shadow edge on them as well

QSCCRE:

Very impressive work. You've inspired me. I've taken etches out of estone successfully, but haven't tried anything like those.

You've given us the critical low-level light shot in the 6th picture down, but I'd like a peek at those repaired cracks, please.

QSCCRE:

Have you done any larger particulate repairs?

Joseph Corlett, LLC sorry do not understand what you mean?

If you mean cracks?

Some more repairs are at thebottom of the web page.

swamp all stone WILL crack from heat or point loads, does not matter the type of stone. Black Granite happens to be the hardest one to crack and will take the most abuse. Your honed finish means that the quartz contained in the granite and with black it is usually minimum will not explode out

Quartz is real quartz what would quartz dust and various size of it be?? The quartz explodes out of the surface or will in the case that Joseph Corlett, LLC has photos of under extreme heat converts the finer quartz particles to a type of volcanic glass. The same that sort of happens when lightning hits sand that has a high quartz or silica content.

Joseph wrote: "Flat hot cookie sheets and the like rarely cause countertop damage, if ever. It's the concentrated heat of a hot pan with a bunch of hot stuff in it over time that does the damage."

Oh! That explains why I've seen a number of people mention damage from slow cookers.

QSCCRE:

By particulates, I mean the size of the exposed quartz chunks. Yours are all small or medium. I posted pictures of large.

You mean the aggregates, or particle sizes, all heat, burn damage just like etch damage can be repaired. Does not matter the brand, color, range etc. In Fact small aggregates under .5mm are the hardest to repair.

I am a fabricator. We have seen quartz cracks most commonly when the fabricator made 90 degree inside corners which create a "stress riser" in the material. Inside corners should be rounded as per the specs from virtually every engineered stone (i.e. "quartz") manufacturer.

In almost 20 years I've only seen two heat related cracks in granite; one was a black wood fireplace hearth that just got too damn hot from the fire. The other was a brand new kitchen where the homeowner had a lefsa party and the four lefsa burners created hot spots lasting hours that resulted in multiple cracks. I replaced the counters as I used to tell customers "if something in your kitchen is hot enough to crack granite your house is on fire." I don't say that anymore. In general the heat energy present in a hot pot is inadequate to heat granite enough to create a crack. However, to be safe a trivet is good insurance. Most of the heat damage we've seen on quartz is a burned surface due to a guest chef that is used to placing hot pots on the counters because they have granite at home. It takes a real craftsman to repair such a burn.

A hot pot can promptly create a crack in a quartz counter because the slabs can have residual stresses in the material from the curing process. The hot pot adds enough additional stress to cause the crack. In the worst cases of residual stress the slab cracks in the fab shop when sawing or CNC'ing the parts which I have seen on multiple occasions over the years. Granite can do the same thing but it's very uncommon as the curing process for granite takes millions of years.

It’s great to hear your many years of experience explaining what happened in the videos, thanks! the stresses within the quartz slab would explain why the crack never closed up after it cooled down.

Very nice job.

Thank you!

Sorry to tag onto this discussion. I wonder if someone could offer advice. I moved into new build flat in London. We have quartz counter top which had no visible signs of a crack. After two years we started to use a air fryer in one particular area and noticed after use a small visible crack. When the surface cools down it becomes invisible. Moved the air fryer to another location and cannot replicate the problem. I believe the crack was present from day one as the crack is near where the fabricator has done a 90 degree cut. Anyway fabricator is telling me it's the air fryer but they will come and investigate.

Manufacturer is telling me it is possible due to thermal shock. Any advice would be really appreciated.

After air fryer use

When surface is cooled down

I am a fabricator. The radius on the inside corner where the crack starts is too small; below the spec allowed by every quartz manufacturer I am aware of. The fryer may have created the crack or it might have been there before. In either case it is the result of the too small radius in the corner. It is unlikely the fabricator will replace the part since he thought it was OK to make the radius that small in the first place. If it was mine I would attempt to repair the crack by using an appropriate epoxy. Quartz pieces are seamed with epoxy that is as strong as the base material.