Here is mine
If I was willing to do more than wipe the back splash with a sponge, it would be better looking. This is just what it was 10 minutes ago when I took the picture without doing anything
With just the one requirement the answer is obvious... Asbestos
m
LOL. I think you're thinking what I'm thinking. What difference does it make which material is the "most" heat resistant? All you need is a material that is heat resistant enough so that you can put a typical hot pot on it. Beyond that, who cares? Are you going to do welding on it? And granite is certainly heat resistant enough for counter tops.
I've seen many decades old stainless commercial kitchen counters and they all look "pretty" to me. Perhaps for a brief period as the factory graining of the SS gives way to the random graining caused by actual use it might look not so good, but it looks nice and even after that. Go over the SS with a RO sander before installation to get the random pattern established and eliminate that step.
The bottom of a kitchen sink and especially the drain will often be populated by bacteria that are highly resistant to normal cleaning. Those bacterial discolour the sink. Clean your kitchen sink and it's drain area with bleach, and you'll see that it makes quite a difference. I do that on all of my apartments when they're vacant so as to have the apartment looking it's best for prospective tenants when they view it. That's something most people aren't aware of, but there'll be as much bacteria growing on your kitchen sink as there is growing on your shower walls. And, of course, you can clean a stainless steel counter top with bleach to sterilize it just like you can clean a kitchen sink with bleach.
Keep in mind that the stainless steel used to make a counter top will typically be thicker and harder than the steel used to make a kitchen sink. That's because the steel used to make a counter top only has to be soft enough that it can be bent into a 90 degree angle at it's corners without cracking. A kitchen sink requires the stainless steel be stamped into a pretty radical shape without being torn or even forming significant cracks that could potentially leak water. So, you have to use a thinner and softer stainless steel when stamping a kitchen sink than you do when fabricating a counter top. And, that means that a stainless steel counter top is gonna be more resistant to dents and scratches than a kitchen sink, and will therefore stay looking new for longer and will be slower to deteriorate with normal wear and tear.
Most stainless kitchen sinks get thrown out because the kitchen is being renovated, and the homeowner wants a new sink along with new faucet, countertop, cabinets and appliances, not because the sink is worn out and in need of replacement. Your local Habitat ReStore is full of 50 plus year old stainless steel kitchen sinks that were donated because their owners knew they were still perfectly functional, and believed that someone could still use them.
I have 21 stainless steel kitchen sinks in my building. All of them are
53 years old, and so far none of them leak or even appear to be anywhere near the end of their useful life. I expect that if I were to somehow plot the cumulative damage after 53 years on those sinks, the resulting standard bell curve would tell me that the AVERAGE lifespan of my stainless steel kitchen sinks would be several hundred years and that some of them would be expected to last twice as long (presuming their life span falls into a normal bell curve). A thicker, stronger and harder stainless steel counter top would be expected to last at least as long.So, no. I don't expect a stainless steel counter top would look "all beaten up" after 10 years of use. If they did, commercial kitchens that often need to remain operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for years on end (like those on your US Navy war ships) wouldn't use them.
Is there anyone in here that served as a cook in the Canadian or US navies that can confirm that all the food preparation was done on stainless steel counter tops?
Welll, it looks pretty good. It certainly doesn't look ugly (although its the bottom of the sink that gets the hitting and scraping), but to go back a step, I was using a sink because that's the only stainless steel I have. For a counter, I can't see why granite isn't better. It's surface doesn't show wipe marks unless the light is just right.
Can one set a hot pot, straight from the oven or stove, on granite without a hotpad or trivet? I thought one could, because as someone sort of pointed out, it was a lot hotter than that when igneous rock was made. **Although I'd probably be afraid to, or afraid I'd get in the habit of putting hot stuff straight on the counter and do it where someone only had formica.
Other than its original cost, which isn't so much any more, I've never found any.
You've already decided on a fairly poor surface for a kitchen and now you're trying to cover that mistake. I got that.
It would also be distributed over a quite wide area, very quickly. It would be hard to burn the substrate with copper or stainless cladding (not going to go there with carbon).
You have your blinders on and aren't looking very hard. A few:
(1) You have to reseal it periodically. Apart from being cumbersome, the regular sealing involves expenditure as well.
(2) It can chip along the front edge, especially in front of the dishwasher. It can crack elsewhere.
(3) If you pick a dark mottled color you can't see where the dirt is.
(4) Lack of resiliency. Drop something glass and it is going to break.
(5) Noisy when dropping metal utensils onto it.
(6) It has seams.
Don.
Wasn't a cook, but we found out a way to jimmy open the galley flap doors, and get some of the good food from the galley reefer. The stuff the commissarymen kept for themselves. We'd do a midwatch raid now and then. Good cheese, hard salami, etc. Even the flap doors were SS, and of course the prep area was all SS. Same in my wife's corporate kitchen, where she's the chef. You can look up sanitary/maintaince reasons for SS. I don't care for the "look" of SS in a home kitchen, or dark colored counters. But we have a SS double sink, which is old and has no scratches I've noticed. Old formica countertops, which have no burn marks. Think my wife puts hot pots on a dishtowel or potholder, but I haven't paid attention. I don't think heat resistance should be an issue with just about any kitchen countertop material. You adjust naturally to where to put hot stuff.
Mica counters are usually burned by a cast iron skillet that was too hot to begin with (maybe dropped). A pan with virtually any liquid in it (oil or water) will not hurt mica. That surface just fell out of favor because granite was the next trendy thing. It is actually a pretty good kitchen surface ... but my wife didn't want it either.
I ended up with maple, her choice, and 10 years later it held up better than I expected. Some day I will hit it with my belt sander, shoot fresh poly on it and be as good as new.
I do have real cutting boards for cutting stuff but that is over the stainless counter in the picture I posted. They just lift off for cleaning or redressing.
Myth
I have a shop for pounding nails. I generally hit the nail head and not the bench, too.
In the last house it was white with "speckles". No issues at all. You do have to wash it once in a while. Our current house is a light brown. No problem. Dark is worse.
Nonsense. You don't think glass going to break if you drop it on Corian or even Formica? Good grief!
You don't think stainless is going to be noisy? It's not bad at all.
If installed by a knuckle-dragger, perhaps.
IOW, you're wrong.
See; someone who served in the navy is saying all the food preparation surfaces in the ship's kitchen were all stainless steel.
And your US Navy wastes a lot of money, but not on replacing kitchen counter tops that are still functional.
I'm not saying you won't get tired of looking at a stainless steel counter top.
I'm just saying you'll get tired of looking at the same stainless steel counter top LONG BEFORE it ever NEEDS to be replaced.
A commercial grade stainless steel kitchen counter top will outlast grandma.
I would never install stainless.
Huh? How is an installer going to make a seam disappear.
Obviously I am not going to convince you. But I have worked on an all white Corian counter. And I have granite now (with chips along the edge). I do all the kitchen work myself, so I am a user and not one that just looks at it. I'll take Corain over granite any day.
Don.
About on a par with Stainless for heat resistance is Pyrex glass. Not quite as durable though.
In my next kitchen, the substrate will be stainless steel, or ground up granite, or diamond dust.
Don't have one. Match it. Put it in a place where it doesn't show. Someone who has the skills to do the job right will do the job right. Pass on everyone else.
Oh, the irony! Corian is fine for a bathroom where it's going to get pampered. A kitchen is for work. Corian just can't handle it.
stainless can be welded and the welded joints ground and polished out...
but personally i wouldnt want a all stainless countertop
You scratch everything with diamond dust. I made some epoxied pieces with diamond dust added. You can use it as a cutting tool.
Greg
While that's certainly true, it has nothing to do with what either of us were talking about.
In the right home, maybe. I can envision it in an urban loft. I can't imagine myself living in such a place anymore, but the look does have its place.
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