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

In my search for AB leathered granite, I encountered a variety of options ranging very dark, very textured to grey-ish with tiny texture marks - maybe more like a brushed finish. Some of these showed oily prints if not sealed. Finally found a lovely slab of Milky Way leathered granite that is the perfect deep black with great texture, with a bit of sheen that does not show prints. This was a search that I thought would be easy but proved to be a bit trickier. Good luck - it can be a beautiful material! (Mine will be installed in few weeks so I don't have good input about use yet).

Thank you so much for the help and photos--your kitchens are beautiful!----my head has been spinning thinking about all of this! I can picture the combination working. Can you tell me if you think this combination would work better/worse: Antique perimeter w/black honed, antique island w/wood, cherry wet bar/carrara marble? I'm guessing it's an OK combo no matter how it's put together, but I guess I'm thinking that the cherry on the island instead of the wet bar makes it feel more grounded since it's in the middle? Does it matter either way?

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.