I have Amazon soapstone, Franke stainless undermount sink and a careless SIL who "helps with dishes." My cast iron gets banked around with no damage to the soapstone. Frankly I would be more worried about damaging the front of a farm sink with cast iron than I would be worried about the soapstone. The only scratch I have came when a worker put his circular saw on the counter. WHen I asked him to please move it--don't you know he slid the blade rather than pick it up. SO I had a about a 1/4 inch ding that was saw blade width. It sanded out easily for a smooth divot. Who plays with saws on a counter?

Just got new Pental Quartz Misterio honed counters, which are white with a grey veining very sporadically. I hate them and so regret this decision! Nothing was ever disclosed to me by the store or the third party stone vendors that honed finish would have all these problems. Scuff marks from anything metal - the entire area around the sink is scuffed from washing pots and pans. Last week I laid some mail on my countertop and picked it up a couple hours later and the ink from something is now imprinted on my counter! I tried Fantastic (which is what the stone company recommends) , Mr Clean Magic Eraser, Clorox Clean Up spray, Windex, Acetone finger nail polish remover (also recommended by the stone company) and nothing will remove the imprint. The counter absorbs everything. I am petrified of spaghetti sauce, or red beets, or curry sauce, or a pen. I went back to the home improvement store I contracted through and asked about having the counters sealed and they said they already were! How can this be? If that is true, this product should never be sold for use in a real home. I am just sick with having spent this much money on such a huge mistake. DO NOT EVER INSTALL HONED COUNTERS IN A REAL HOME KITCHEN THAT GETS USED!!

We have white quartz. It's not honed but it's not shiny like polished granite, either. My husband is the cook in our family and he is NOT a neat cook. (He cooks and I clean up, so he likes to make as big of a mess as possible. He's a cad, but a good one.) Spills (or putting a spoon intentionally on the counter coated in spaghetti sauce) haven't been an issue at all. The beauty of quartz is that it doesn't really stain. We have had a few random marks that have shown up from the bottom of a pot and things of that nature, but they usually come off pretty easily with a little bit of scrubbing. We've only been in our house for a year, so it's possible things could change, but so far it has been great. I haven't seen honed white quartz before, but I have heard that honed quartz in other colors is more likely to stain than normal quartz, so keep that in mind before you get it.

Have you checked out Corian? I've had better experiences with Corian in the bathroom than quartz. I had a Zodiac Quartz countertop in a barely used bathroom with a gloss finish and I could never remove the water spots. I've had my sister's hair dye sit in on my Corian countertop for a few hours and was able to clean it up with very little effort. My Master Bath shower is all Corian and it is a dream for maintenance. I have yet to come across any thread on Houzz that talks of having problems with Corian