Kitchen worktop- ways to make it look less damaged

[fromheretonowhere]

On the back of another thread about black worktops with flecks in them, we inherited one when we bought the house. It is covered in scratches and shows every water mark, shows streak marks where you have wiped it with cleaner, every crumb etc stands out like a sore thumb no matter how much we clean it after every use.

Did anyone know of any specialist cleaner and/or polisher to make it look a bit better? We can’t replace it just yet but I’m looking at ways to try and improve the appearance in the meantime.

What's the worktop made of? Some substances can be repolished to take scratches out, obviously this removes some of the surface.

I think you need to know what it is before you can figure out how you might improve it. If it’s granite it’s going to be completely different than if it’s a faux granite.

@wowfudge
It’s definitely not granite, it’s some sort of cheap laminate that’s an imitation black and white marble effect.

If it's laminate then there's not much you can do if it's very scratched. It probably wouldn't be very expensive to replace it. Alternatively you can have it covered with granite and there are companies that specialise in this kind of thing. You could try metal polish on the worst of the scratches but it could just end up looking even worse.