Thanks, Katie! I like the simplicity of the standard edge too. I am thinking that maybe I should just go for it and hope for the best, but am still nervous that it will end up with a lot of chips. I'll look forward to seeing pics of your island when you have them! I'm sure it will be beautiful!

I have an eased edge on the marble in my bathroom. No issues with it. I have the same edge on the granite in my kitchen.

Great question and one that I have too. I like the 'standard' or 'pencil' edge for looks and cost but wonder about chipping in the sink area. I'll hopefully have soapstone on the parameters and marble on the island (no sink on the island though).

What kind of marble are you getting? I'm caught between 'new emperador light' and one of the 'Danby' marbles if I can find an affordable piece with some brown in it. I think some marbles are harder than others.

I was actually told by a marble fabricator that the smallest radius is best on marble (as opposed to granite, where small radius increases chance of chipping?). He felt that the squarer the edge, the better to resist chipping, in marble... but recommended a slight radius for comfort.

I got the standard eased edge, not yet installed.

For whatever that's worth!

I decided to go for the rounded edge on my honed carrara marble because I was concerned about chipping. There was no extra charge for it. It was installed three weeks ago and we were delighted with it. It softens the look of the counter and it's very comfortable to lean against. I'll try to post a photo.

@sue 36: That's good to hear about your marble in your bathroom. My concern is partly about dishes, pots, pans, bumping around near the kitchen sink, but still good to hear about it holding up well in a sink area.

@americancolleen: I am getting White Carrara marble. It is the one that seems most classic (for kitchen use, that is) and "speaks" to me, although I have to say the Calacatta and Statuary marble I've seen have turned my head too. I saw some nice Danby marbles too; I like the green in them but it was going to clash with other parts of my color scheme. If you live anywhere near VA, I found a great place in Lorton that has tons of different kinds of marble, including quite a bit of Danby.

@staceyneil: That is very interesting. I had never heard that before. So does the fabricator think that the eased edge, with its small bit of rounding, provides that "slight radius" he was suggesting? Eased edge is my inclination just style-wise, so it would be great to hear it's the smartest choice too.

@madlizard: Can't wait to see a photo!

Yes, he liked a little bit of radius like an eased edge...

I have white statuary marble in m entire kitchen - including around my two sinks....it has been in for almost 3 years. i do have some chipping on my main sink...small ones from where pots have hit it....i am probably the only one who would really notice them, unless you are really looking. i do try to be careful with pots and pans when washing. i also have an eased edge.

Thanks, Staceyneil. Cosmomilkshake, are you the one I vaguely remember having photos of some chipping around the sink? I think that might be what prompted me to start wondering about it. I'm glad to hear that it's not very noticeable. I'm sure your marble is gorgeous, I loved the statuary marble I looked at.

Mine has more of a pencil edge -- kind of consistent with the softer, gently worn look I wanted with the marble. My fabricator said that softly rounded edges are better than a crisp corner on an edge. If you think about it, something hits a sharp corner -- a hard edge where the material is thinnest, is more likely to chip than a rounded edge where the material is not as thin and something hitting it might just follow the rounded edge and fall off without taking a piece with it. He did say they don't recommend any fancier edges for marble because of the chipping potential.

The only chip I have found in my marble is in the underneath side where the marble meets the sink opposite my faucet. I suspect the chip occurred during the installation and no one noticed. It took me moths of using and cleaning the sink to find it. You can't see it unless you hang with your head upside down in the sink, so I can't say it bothers me.

Lascatx, I am trying to picture a pencil edge -- not sure what it looks like. I am also laughing at the visual of you hanging with your head upside down in the sink! Sounds like something I would do (or try to do, anyway LOL).

Hey -- I only did it because I felt something and had to look -- once. Now, it is what it is. LOL

The pencil edge is a rounded edge that has a soft waterfall-like roundness over the edge -- about the roundness of a pencil - a fat pencil in my case. If you took one of those very smooth, very round pencils and laid a cooked lasagna noodle over it, that's about what my counter edge is like. (Is that a visual a foodie can grasp? I would have said fondant but more folks work with pasta than fondant. Just don't eat the pencil. ;-) ) It doesn't have any corners, but it isn't a quarter round either.

They brought the marble in with an eased edge at first and it still had too much corner for me, so they took it outside and buzzed it down a bit.

lascatx- That's funny that the fabricator I talked to said that squarer edges were better for marble... and yours said the opposite. Personally, your guy's opinion makes a lot more sense to me. Maybe the guy I spoke with (not my fabricator, by the way) was totally wrong!!

Hey, stone people, care to weigh in on this?

lizg, i'm in arlington and will be soon looking for marble for a new house. can you share the name of the place in Lorton?

Absolutely! The place is called Rugo. If I look around I can probably find the card of the guy we dealt with there, whose name was Gus. As I recall, they either had no weekend hours or they were very limited, but we were able to call and set up evening hours during the week to come look at the stone. They were very nice to deal with, and had an incredible selection of all different types of marble. If I ever figure out how to post pictures, I could show you some. They had slabs outdoors, in a warehouse, and I think there was another warehouse nearby as well. I found it so refreshing because usually we would go to places that had 999 slabs of granite and 1 slab of marble to choose from. This one had almost all marble. The only other stone I remember seeing there was soapstone.

Having said all this, unfortunately I could not find the white carrara I wanted there. What they had was more spotted than veined. It looked like a dalmation to me! I ended up finding the right slabs elsewhere, but was kind of sorry I couldn't find it at the place that loved marble so much. It was also the only place I ever went that did not try to tell us we shouldn't use marble in the kitchen :)

I think they also do marble work on some of the monuments and public buildings in DC.

Anyway, good luck. If Rugo doesn't work for you, I'll be happy to share with you the places we went in Maryland too.

lizg, thanks a lot. i'll check Rugo out.

I've been living with my new counters for 11 months and I have eased (= pencil edge) edge on almost all my counters and really like it. I've chipped my marble (Danby) island counter - pretty darned bit one. I've also chipped my Caesarstone Raven counter; extremely minor and almost impossible to find without feeling for it. Both are in the kitchen and were chipped while either loading a DW or putting other dishes away (have to be more careful...).

My kids have (miraculously!) not chipped their Caesarstone vanities (they are 8 & 10).

We chose a standard eased edge for our 3 cm granite countertops in the kitchen. Our fabricator prefers an eased edge that he called a pencil edge since it is slightly rounded with a 1/8" radius. He said that a standard eased edge is square with a 1/16" radius. He recommended the pencil edge since it is less likely to chip.

We're now looking at 2 cm marble for the bathroom vanities. Our fabricator prefers an ogee edge that he calls a double waterfall since it has two curves. Again, he recommended the waterfall edge since it is less likely to chip.

Another fabricator told me that I shouldn't worry about chips and do a real ogee edge (square with a rounded step) because chips can be filled and repaired. I'm wondering what to do also in light of the conflicting opinions of two well-regarded fabricators in my area. Does anyone have experience with chip repairs or with a different edge that would be less prone to chips?

I have a pencil edge and have no chipping, not even around the sink. I really really do not baby my kitchen at all. HTH!!

I love Marble. Don't have it but love the look.
My favorite edge type is the pic below
I beleive it is called BookEnd.