Scratched slate hearth

[Bearcat]

We have had a new fire place fitted in the front room ready to have a wood burner fitted in January.
It looked lovely when the fitters left.
The cat decided to do his own bit of exploring and walked through the cement render and leave cat paw prints on the lovely black slate.
I then tried to clean ts with a bit of WD40, which improved it, but then left it a bit mottled.
A few days later after a bit of Internet googling I decided to clean it with warm soapy water.
Today it has scratches.
Me and the bloody cat have really buggered this up.
Any ideas anyone?
I do realise it won't stay perfect, we have had the same fireplace for 4 years in our back room but although not perfect is doing a lot better than the one that is a week old
TIA

[poppycarew]

Baby oil ? seriously I am sure we cleaned a slate hearth with that and it worked . Not permanently - you will need to do it again , but it does work .
pc

[MummytoMog]

It will always look a bit scratched if it hasn't been oiled recently. Baby oil, vegetable oil, WD40, any of those will make it look perfect. The soapy water will just have stripped the oil off it. You can buy slate oil, but I don't know how much better that is than cooking oil.

[Bearcat]

Thank you.
I will be oiling the slate in the morning.