How do polished, honed, leathered and other finishes differ?

The differences are aesthetic as well as functional. More-common finishes include:

Polished—This is the mirror-gloss you are most likely familiar with. It’s attained using increasingly finer flexible diamond-grit pads. Please see “pits” above and watch for them when selecting your slab. While it’s a low-maintenance finish for granite, it is not always appropriate for marble, especially in the kitchen. Soapstone will not take a full polish.

Honed—This is smooth to the touch, like polished, but lacks the shine. It’s achieved using the aforementioned pads, but stopping on a coarser grit than polished. Honed finish runs from dusty looking to just off-polished, and we recommend it for marble in kitchens. However, most granite and darker marble will show fingerprints and rings from glasses if honed, so we suggest against it in these materials. Soapstone is almost always honed.

Brushed, Antiqued, Leathered—These interchangeable terms signify a “rumpley” feel and a moderate shine without gloss. It’s achieved using pads with flexible fingers of plastic and diamond grit. The size and shape of the “rumples” depend on the size of the crystals in the given stone. This finish gives a one of a kind look that is more understatedly elegant than polished and requires less maintenance than honed.