Had a customer inquire what I knew about slate for a countertop? I told them I would get some info, as I know nothing about the pro's and con's of using it in a kitchen?

Someone know if they would love it or hate it?  Would be active kitchen with 4 kids...

KC

When I've read about slate as a countertop a couple people said that it scratched easily. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me though since it's routinely used for flooring.

If they are looking for that type of rustic look they may be better off with soapstone. You could do a leather finish on it that will give it a little more of a slate texture. It should also be easier to fabricate and maintain once it's in the house.

Good advice Brian.   I have done countless slate jobs on floors.  Many slate type are basical very hard mud.   The harder darker types have  too much texture IMO for a counter.   On floors we seal then with a very durable but toxic finish to prevent staining but also to get the stone color to jump out.  Slate can delaminate and chip easily on the edges.

The pros are , easy to install and replace broken tiles

I would think Soapstone would be the way to go. We tried to purchase a slate slab for our outside entry and couldn't find anyone that carried it. I live in Southern California and we have tons of slabs, but nobody had slate. Might be hard to find.

I don't know if it's just a regional thing but I was looking at the availability of slate in my area and I could only find 2cm or tiles.

The PA area has quite a bit of slate.  As I recall, all of my high school lab classes had slate counter and table tops and stood up pretty well.  Here is a site that specializes in Slate and Quartzite.
http://www.natslateandquartzite.com...slate.html

Jeff