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Want a brushed look on our stainless backsplashes

Hello, My husband and I are opening a restaurant. (this is actually my 5th one) and we got very creative with our stainless in the commercial kitchen. As we all know the stainless can be a huge expense. We have been doing all the work ourselves and decided to go to the local pipe and steel company and order stainless sheets we could put up for our back splash. They were very helpful and made all the cuts we needed. The concern I have is the sheets we purchased were a 24-gauge stainless and they did not have a finish to them. Now that I am looking at them, they are very shiny and it shows finger prints and scratches, etc.. My question, is there anything I can do to give the steel a brushed finish? I have read that possibly sanding/using a scotchbrite pad might work. I don't want to compromise the integrity of the steel, but I also don't want the grease and kitchen wear & tear to show up so much. Any Suggestions??

Rebecca DeAngelo
Professional - Vail, Colorado, USA
May 6, 2011

Hi, Rebecca. Let me preface this by saying I'm not a finishing professional and I'm not associated with this company, but I've used a product called Scratch Away (NOT the liquid product sold on Amazon), made by Micro-Surface Finishing Products, Inc., to remove scratches from stainless steel sinks and pots. The kit I purchased, which is now included in the company's kitchen/bath maintenance kit, contains instructions for achieving/retouching different finishes, from matte to brushed to gloss, and includes a liquid abrasive and several pads of wet sanding sponges of various grits. You obviously have much more surface to cover than the average DIYer; perhaps there is another product for commercial applications. Alternatively, you could experiment with wet/dry sandpaper, (dry) 00 steel wool ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , or even (wet) pumice stone ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] on a scrap piece of stainless to get the desired effect. Good luck with your project.

Carol Mellon
- Durham, North Carolina
June 24, 2011