UKC

I have just spent an stupid amount of time and effort building a hearth and refurbishing an old stove. Eventually just about finished it, and of course, doing the very last 'act' of putting the stove back in place i managed to scuff the slate hearth (i had even had a practice run before finishing it off to make sure i had a good way to put it back in wthout causing damae, grrrr.)

Anyway, the scuff looked the usual whiteish, saw online you could sand it and re-oil it, so i did, and now the scuff is a bigger patch of a different color to everything else...

The slate is black, the sanded/scuffed section is more of a grayish blue. Tried sanding with loads of different grits and it makes no difference, just looks smoother, so sanding is not the solution. Been oiling it with boiled linseed as the rest of the hearth but it does not change the color of the scuffed section at all.

Any ideas what, if anything, i could try? Beginning to think painting it would be the only workable solution, but painting it with what? Is there such a thing as a slate dye? ggoole is not being helpful and most i'm getting is ads from shops selling slate tiles

Do you like the new grayish blue finish? Could you sand the rest of it to match?

Edit to add my qualifications to back up my suggestion: Rank amateur at DIY who probably spends more time undoing my own mistakes rather than actually improving anything.

Thinking outside the box, i like it, but unfortunately no. I also spent a fair amuont of time sourcing the blackest slate i coud find... Thanks though

Ah that's frustrating, I'd forgotten you'd said you'd just built it.

Try black boot polish or wax crayon? If the result is poor, a solvent cleaner will remove it.

Not sure wax will like the heat. Had a quick google with regards shoe polish andcould be promising. I'll look further into it. Thanks

P.S. And that line of searching took me to a product called 'slate blacking'. Interesting, cheers

you’ll probably find the hearth was covered in slate blacking at some point

So either bring back the original colour or reblack the whole lot.

had this with a hearth recently, sort of managed to bring back the original colour.

*very amateur DIY

I built the hearth from scratch, it was 'raw' slate before i oiled it.

Did you use slate blaking then? Reckon it's something can be used on a small patch?

For reference, this is a (crappy) pic (low light and dust, but hey) https://i.imgur.com/prrT9AZ.jpeg

I polished my hearth back using a fine sander then scouring pads, some blacking remained in the larger scratches but its an old house so a few “battle” scares fit in with the look

Zebrite if you can still get hold of it.  Its a jet black polish  you wipe on with a rag and I remember doing our slate hearth with it many years ago.  Originally used for cast iron stoves.

I have just remembered, we had a bottle of hearth cleaner at a previous house which cleaned up ash residue and blackened the hearth tiles. Try that? Prob best to try on an offcut or old roofing slate first.

You can get slate blackener. Curator is a good brand.