FYI: Using the honing Pad system can reduce your job time and labor costs by up to 70%. No chemicals are ever required, all polishing and restoration is done with 100% mechanical abrasion, all you need is water! The Cheetah Pads are able to deliver very consistent results that match and in many cases exceed the quality of standard factory finished stones. Honing Pad training can be done in one day; it’s easy, fast, and leaves you with enough knowledge to tackle simple and complex restorations.

FYI: The honing Pad system does not have specific grit sizes; they go by steps 1 through 4. Using step 1 is equivalent to using grit sizes 50-200, step 2 equivalent to 100-800, step 3 equivalent to 400-3,000, and step 4 equivalent to 8,000. Step 1 should be used in a full restoration, and step 4 would be light restoration to general maintenance.

FYI: The honing pad system is completely hand-made so there may be a slight variation with the color of the abrasives.

FYI: 

Honing Pads have up to 20x the abrasive content compared to traditional resin diamonds; more abrasives mean that a really thorough clean-up is required. Also, using a fresh microfiber flat mop in between steps ensures the best removal of any and all abrasives from the previous step.

FYI: New honing Pads may take up to 50 square feet of use to “break-in”.

FYI: Using your machine in small circular overlapping motions at a 45 degree angle to the grout joints is strongly recommended for best results.

FYI: If the step 2, 3, or 4 pads and or final polishing pad wear very quickly this means a more thorough clean-up between steps is required.

FYI: Before advancing through to the next step, doing a simple 30 second test on a small work area will help determine if you are ready to advance. To do the test, simply use your machine with your current step pad concentrated on one area for 30 seconds. If the area you run the test on looks dramatically better than the rest of the surface then continue using that same pad on the entire surface to get the best results.

FYI: If all the steps were done correctly with proper clean-up, by step 4 the surface should look factory polished. Following step 4 by polishing with an 11,000 grit Pad increases gloss and color even more. Some stones respond well to an additional dry buffing with the final 11,000 grit Pad to make the colors even more vibrant.

FYI: For limestone and lighter colored marbles it is highly recommended if you are using a weighted drive plate or a machine with any weights, to remove those weights before the final 11,000 grit Pad dry pass.

FYI: For green serpentine marble it is recommended to use at least 120-150 total weight on your machine and several more slow passes on the surface with each step.

FYI: The Pad system wears much quicker on softer stones like limestone, travertine, and lighter marbles.