Leathered looks a bit lighter indeed.

I know Steel Grey as Dark Pearl or Silver Pearl and the leathered version is quite rough (more than the image above). Make sure you want that texture. See it in person before making a decision.

Thanks, that fits with what I am seeing from the photos I was sent. We were originally keen on the leathered option but wanted something without too much pattern or variation, so now I'm not so sure. There seems to be a lot of inconsistency in the description of texture options (leathered vs honed vs brushed etc) and so I'm not even certain that the 'non-polished' option we have is definitely leathered (to clarify, this is all one product, called 'Steel Grey Dual', that is polished on one side and textured on the other). I'm hoping to go see it later this week if they are open

I have leathered (aka brushed) steel grey granite. From what I was able to find out when I tried researching it, leathered and brushed are the same finish and there isn’t an industry standard name for the technique. Honed is something different. Polished looks very different and darker than the leathered. The leathered looks like a medium to dark grey depending on the lighting and angle you’re looking at it from... many times it almost looks black, especially in photos, but up close it’s grey. You can see different textures and variations in the stone up close but it mostly looks like a calm, single color when looking at it as a whole. I have one part in my counter that looks like a lighter colored heart shape. I didn’t notice it before it was fabricated, but I love it now. I’ll include some photos of my kitchen, some before the kitchen was done so you can see some closeups and how the color kind of changes with the lighting. If you gave any questions about performance I’d be happy to talk about that too... I really love this stone in the leathered finish and I’d choose it again in a heartbeat!

We have leathered steel grey granite. It’s dark gray. textured for sure but not patterened. Like everything about it except suction cups dont always stick (most often don’t) which is fine but we have some bottle brushes etc that don’t stick any more. its very pretty. love the matte finish. so worth it

Thanks skmom, that's extremely helpful! I was actually reading a thread you started on this a while ago and was thinking of following up to see if you liked it.

I've found it so difficult to get a decent picture of the leathered and I'm glad you say it looks pretty uniform. I'm not so much worried about it being dark (lighter grey is just fine) but I was worried about the degree of color variation, we need something pretty 'plain' and subtle in terms of color tones. Your kitchen looks gorgeous and I would love to see more pics if you have them. Thanks again

Thanks roccouple, that's great to know!

I took some more photos for you. :) It has a very nice, soft texture to the stone. It feels bumpy and I’ll admit that I was initially worried that if I rolled sticky dough out directly on the counter that little bits would get stuck in crevices and left behind, but everything is so smoothed out, even the little bumps, that nothing ever gets stuck or left behind and it’s extremely easy to clean. Imo, even easier than a polished stone because I’m not having to try to make sure streaks don’t get left behind. Fingerprints never show up. Oil doesn’t soak into it. It has been impervious to every stain I’ve ever thrown at it and we do a lot of high heat cooking with a lot of ethnic kinds of foods. Everyone who sees it wants to touch it (and again, fingerprints never show up, yay!) I’ve had a granite in the past with a very speckled salt and pepper pattern and I always wear gloves when I clean my kitchen, with that granite I’d wipe it and “think” I’d gotten the granite clean but as soon as I took my gloves off and felt the counter with my bare hand there were almost always crumbs left behind. I don’t have that problem with these counters. On one hand, every speck and fingerprint isn’t highlighted so it’s not one that looks dirty right after you cleaned it; but on the other hand, it’s not like it totally hides crumbs either, it’s just easy to clean and keep looking clean. The seams are not noticeable either. I mean, I think we had a really good fabricator and I like where they placed the seams (especially my corner seam) but I’m also aware that the mottled pattern that IS there is just conducive to not highlighting any seams. The only downside that I’ve found to this granite (we’ve had it for several years and my kitchen is NOT babied, we have a large family and I cook a lot) is that it chips a little. Not easily! I think part of the reason is that we went with the simple eased edge instead of a rounded edge. I’ll include a photo of some small chips at my sink edge (I use a lot of heavy cast iron cookware and I have a lot of teenagers who aren’t unusually careless, but they are teens nevertheless.) and one photo where I’m pointing to a chip, it’s almost like a dent, where my knife sharpener rod thing fell off my magnetic knife holder and straight down onto the counter... I now store it differently because of that incident, it fell fast and hard and hit it just right. So, even though it chips here and there, I will also say that the chips are very easy to repair and not noticeable AT ALL once they’re repaired. (I’ve had a few repaired before, need to have it done again soon) The pattern to the stone just easily lends itself well to hiding repairs I guess. It’s my favorite counter top material I’ve ever had (I’m in my late 40’s, and we’ve moved around a lot) and I’d totally get this one again... even with the eased edge because I like that look the best, even with the chip risk. I’m considering getting it for my master bathroom when we remodel it... depends on what other tile choices we go with, but I’d love to have it in there as well. Hope that helps!

A couple more photos...

We have leathered Antique Brown granite. It looks soft black/dark gray dispute having brown in its name. It’s lovely and I would pick it again in a heartbeat. I personally don’t like polished dark granites because the pendant and other lights shine off of the mirror-like surface in a way that I find unpleasant. The leathered surface feels nice also. The only installation issue I was warned about is that the leathering can make it more challenging for the fabricator to make a perfect seam. They did a great job though and the seams were fine on our project.

I like the look of leathered, but i’m curious if it takes any extra effort — compared to a polished surface — to clean up spills, especially where things have begun to dry.

@kudzu9, no extra effort to clean anything up. Wipes down easily.

Thank you everyone especially skmom, for your advice and thoughts, that's very useful info

I’ve seen honed steel gray and it is lighter in color and sooo smooth. Beautiful!

Another question on a similar subject- which edging to choose? These are my options (this is for a bathroom).

Eased is the default. Wondering if this is more likely to chip than, say, double radius or double bevel? Those would be the other ones I would consider. Seems again that there is a big difference in terminology, but this image is from the fabricator I'm using.

I'd go with eased for the most classic simple look. Not a fan of any of the angled ones.

I’m not sure I’d be worried about chipping too much in a bathroom... the only thing that has chipped mine is when someone accidentally nicks it with something cast iron or solid steel. But yes, the eased edge is more prone to chipping than the other edges from what I’ve heard.

If you are concerned about the color looking lighter with the leathered, you can make the color of the leathered look dark by using a color enhancing sealer on the stone. We have installed leathered granite and used the color enhancing sealer. It works really well.

Thanks, I've not heard of color enhancing. So can that be applied any time - even if the granite has already been sealed? And does it retain the non-polished appearance of the original leathered finish, or does it essentially make a leathered finish now look like a polished one?

From what everyone has said in this thread, I'm thinking we wouldn't need to go down this route but it would be good to know all options ahead of time. Thanks again

The color enhancing stone sealer would be applied to the non-sealed granite and reapplied when needed. You can easily apply the sealer yourself. It will not give it a polished look, it maintains the non-polished look and just makes the color darker.

Got it- thank you

We have eased edge on the perimeter leathered Antique Brown (soft black) granite, and ogee edge on the polished White Macaubus Quartzite island.

Well- we did it! And I love it! Thanks to all especially skmom for your thoughts

One final question- cleaning recommendations, what product to use? It's not sealed, I understand that's not typically deemed necessary, but should anything spill I'd like to be fully aware of anything that can stain or otherwise damage.

We just wipe with soap and water. A sponge or cloth. Have not needed anything else yet

Yeah, I mostly use my dish cleaning sponge or a damp microfiber cloth. Occasionally I use a cleaning spray on it like from Method or Mrs. Meyers. Usually if I get something like raw chicken juice on it I just use a soapy sponge.

Perfect, thanks. The (polished and "sealed") granite that was here when we moved in had bad staining from water, presumably it hadn't been sealed properly. I panicked initially when I saw that a soapy area on the new (unsealed) top dried out really dark and patchy but after I wiped it down with plain water it dried just fine and looks good as new. I'm so glad we went with this