Honed travertine has a beautiful and shiny appearance and creates a strong impression of cleanliness when properly taken care of. This naturally occurring stone is a delicate and porous material used in finishings mostly as a tile. The question as to whether you should hone or polish your travertine surface actually depends on the kind of cleaning or restoration you want to do on your surface.
When to Hone
Where the tiles have been damaged by a pet, discolored or other serious issues, honing will be a better option to deal with this as polishing will not be useful since it is meant to maintain the shiny beauty of the tiles.
Excessive Honing
It is, however, worthwhile to note that due to the more abrasive nature of honing, your travertine surface is likely to wear out faster if frequently honed. On the other hand, polishing a discolored travertine tile will serve no purpose in terms of restoring the surface shine. Honed travertine also requires polishing to give it the shiny look. If left unpolished, the travertine will have a chalky appearance.
The key is therefore to maintain the travertine without need to have honing as that will give it a longer life where only cleaning and polishing will be required to maintain it in a clean shiny state.
Honing tiles wrongly could cause them to become very slippery which is dangerous to those walking on the tiles. Too much honing of the tiles could also lead to cracks and damage. Frequent honing will also lead to damage of the tiles through water absorption.
Source: www.DoItYourself.com
