"When it gets evenly scratched all over it will look great"

True or not true?

My Elkay sink is over 25 years old and I think it still looks great. It's going to Home Source when we finally get this reno going.

' "When it gets evenly scratched all over it will look great"
True or not true? '

True, IMO: stainless sinks and counters develope an overall, non-directional luster that slowly replaces the brushing marks that flow all one way. The more you get, the more it blends together. Color remains as when new [at least when clean!], but the look gets softer.

Not true of appliances, where there's never enough scratches to create the random appearence you get on more used surfaces.

Besides: use a Stainless sink or counter, and the scratches come fast and easy. You'll drive yourself mad trying to keep it pristine. Scratches simply have to be seen as an inherint part of package.

True. I spent 1200.00 on my Franke Orca sink with all accessories and it has scratches. It will be fine 10 and even 20 years from now, when you won't be able to see one of them. I do also have a bottom grid, though, so that protects it and it will actually probably take longer to get the all over scratched look. You didn't notice them on your old sink for two reasons: 1. it didn't cost 500.00 and 2. it had already developed the all over scratched patina.

Sue

Agree, scratch the heck out of your sink as quickly as possible. It's really as much breaking yourself inas the sink because trying to keep it unscratched would turn a fantastically functional material into effectively an absurdly inappropriate one--like covering a backsplash with linen and expecting it to work.

It'll ultimately end up looking very nice. Hmm, maybe linen with a decade's patterning of aged grease spots would too...?. Never mind. Before this, all my stainless sinks were old and "patinaed" when I moved in and I was genuinely VERY surprised to come here and find people worried about scratching them. I'd never noticed that they could be in a way that'd be noticeable or that anyone could care about.

Only the first few scratch hurt. Eventually it is all scratched and develops a beautiful patina.

Great, bring on the scratches! :) Thanks all!

in a brushed type finish on my sink, i was able to take out some of the light scratches using bar keepers friend (rubbing in the direction of the polishing of the sink).

Bar Keepers Friend and 3M pads help to freshen

Bar Keepers Friend is very popular on this site. I have to get some for my sink. What 3M pads were you using?

Let it get scratched! It looks great over time...that's what SS does. We put in the huge Franke pro sink (the biggest and deepest one they make), and I spent a month trying to keep it pristine. Then the first scratches happened from normal metal on metal contact and I quickly got over my scratch phobia.

Part of the problem is the brushed #4 finish the sinks and appliance companies use. It's pretty fragile because you have delicate grooves running in one direction. It's very easy to scratch across the grooves.

We have a Franke bar sink with a smooth matte SS, and it's still scratch free 2 years later. Our FP double ovens have the smooth matte iridium SS that FP offers, and it's also scratch and stain free after several years.

A kitchen sink is meant to be used, not preserved like a piece of art. Kind of like your pots and pans...after several years of hard use, they will show the wear and tear. But it's a good thing to let that happen, and totally natural.

I've just had my stainless steel sink replaced, for some reason the scratches it had cannot be removed, so I took the time to search the internet and found the site which sells a stainless steel sink, I gave it a try and it's perfectly working now.

Here is a link that might be useful: sink

I might consider buying that sink tim. Thanks for the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tim's link

I'm having doubts of replacing my sink till I found your recommendation Tim.

Here is a link that might be useful: sink