Jacksonville Marble Honing
There are really only two reason I can think of a person want to change a polish finish marble to a honed marble. This is a story of some polish finish stone that went on to become honed marble.
If you look up the word hone / honed in the dictionary you will see mentioned using a whetstone to sharpen a knife. There is also the concept of honing, refining, sharpening, or advancing on a goal, developing a skill. This definition is very fitting for the stone business because honing stone is what is done through the use of abrasives. Honing a stone counter top slab or floor tile begins in a factory when the stone is sawed from larger pieces of granite or marble. As the stone moves along the production line it progresses through a number of in line abrasive rows. The stone progresses through this production line and is becoming something quite different than it was when it left the quarry. It is becoming smoother. The details in the stone are becoming more clear. The color is starting to emerge. At some point the stone will stop at what would be considered a lower grit and be sold as a honed marble or it will continue forth to the higher grit levels eventually becoming a polished finish stone.
A polished finish stone is going to be on the production line through a high enough grit level to develop a polish finish. The polish finish is achieved through progressively higher grit abrasives until it reaches a finial polish. The final polish is achieved by using heat produced by friction to form a polish finish. Without getting into too deep an analysis, when a solid surface is subjected to heat and friction the surface flows and develops the polish layer. Happens on metal. Happens on gemstones. Happens on marble. To see our polished finish surfaces you can go to this page.
So we are left with the two finishes hone or polish. Honed measured to the last grit used. We generally look for this to be about a 220 grit finish on new surfaces. Or the polish finish the polish finish can be measured with a gloss meter.
So we have a beautiful polished finish on the pictures below, but the owners do not like the finish. It is in a kitchen. The polish finish stone is subject to etching from low pH chemicals. You can see the obvious etch marks.
So we knocked the polish off and developed a beautiful honed marble. Notice the etches in the beautiful polish finish. The homeowner became tired of the constant need to deal with acid etches on these counters from low pH liquids.
Etched Calcutta Gold polished finish marble
First step in the process is using a dustless sander to remove the polish finish. This sander removes virtually all the dust from dry sanding.
Sanding the stone. With 50 grit then 120.
Between honing cuts.
Finished product. Honed Marble.
Here is a video of the polish-to-hone process.
A short video of the honing
This discussion is about changing a polished finish marble surface to a honed finish. We also frequently do the exact opposite and take a factory hone finish to a polish finish. If you to transform your marble counters or floors please call for an estimate today.
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