In the following thread Borngrace has posted pics of her "patina'd " soapstone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Borngrace soapstone

Hi Ricklish,

I just looked at Borngrace's aged photos in the link posted above and my soapstone had a similar look to it when left unattended except for those white rings that are showing up in her photos. I never got those.

Did you go out to Rocktops? How did you like it? Did you meet with Bob?

I did go out to Rock Tops. I met Bob, he is VERY knowledgeable and had beautiful stone. I put a deposit on three slabs of Santa Rita with some beautiful brown granite inclusions in it. I grabbed a couple chunks that fell off the slabs as they were being moved. When I got home I was playing around with the chunks and they scratch REALLY easily. I mean, I can scratch it with my fingernail enough to leave a mark. When I showed DH, he sorta freaked out. We have two kids and I'm really worried that my choice is too soft for our active family... what to do. I love the way the stone looks, but fear that it will be trashed in six months.

What did you find at Rock Tops?

I was down there last week and put money down on some mariana reserve clear slabs. they are soft (all soapstone is) but not as soft as the santa rita.
Call bob and tell him you're concerned about the hardness... i'm sure he has some suggestions and help

the ease of scratching is a double-edged sword for soapstone...it gives it that patina and feel, but it scratches easy, however, because it's soft, it's also very easy to sand out the scratches if you get any ugly ones

What happens to the scratches from your fingernails when you oil it.

We had Santa Rita and we got scratches from our cleaning lady dragging stuff across our counters. I never bothered sanding them. I just oiled them washed them as usual and oiled them when I felt like it and I was never able to tell where they were afterwards. We also have 6 kids. 4 teenagers and 4yo twins. Very busy house and soapstone was the perfect solution for us. We bought it because....if it got really bad we could sand the whole thing and oil it and it would be as good as the day it was installed.

sorry for the late post... I have seen and lived with soapstone with a patina. I personally love the agged look and hardly ever oiled my tops.. Joshua does that :)

below is a picture of good friends of ours that we installed the stone over a year ago. She oiled it up to Easter and then stoped. These pictures were taken in Sept. Also is a picture of her bathroom which she never oiled and you can see the dark area's around the sink where her and her husband lean when brushing their teeth. This stone was Light Veining Venata. this stone is harder then the Santa Rita's and Black Venata but not as hard as the Santa Barbara, Belvedere, Julia ect..

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This kitchen was installed 8 months ago and I took a close up of around the sink. This was in Black Venata one of the softer types.

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I'm getting ready to purchase an old 100 + year old sink to put in our showroom Below is the link of the company we're getting it from.. but it at least can show you how well they hold up :) Hope this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: Old Soapstone sinks

Thanks florida_mimi! Those pics are very helpful. At this point I still REALLY REALLY want soapstone, those veins are just so gorgeous! I called Bob at Rock Tops and he is planning to meet with myself and DH over the next few days to discuss our issues and find the right stone for us.

I am curious though, does anyone recognize this stone?
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The square sample is one I got from another local fabricator and is much harder than the Santa Rita below. (I oiled the bottom half of each sample) Is it even soapstone? That's what they called it, but it is really hard. I could barely scratch it with my key using hard pressure. And my fingernail didn't even leave a mark
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How 'bout the big ding in the Santa Rita! Note to self, keep all hammers out of the kitchen!! LOL

I have praised the folks at Nor'east ever since I bought all my salvage from them . I have posted pics of both of my 100 yr old sinks that I got from them. They are wonderful.

I do not oil. The kitchen sink is wet from just rinsing it out.

kitchen sink:

sunroom Alberene sink( still has original tag on front)

ricklish, see if you can get a whole picture of the slab.. that sample is a hard one to call.. You saying it's harder tend me to believe it almosts looks like Cobra, or Belevdere, or Brazilian Black.. to my eye it looks like it has a little bit of green in it. A picture of the slab will help.

trailrunner- WOW, and DOUBLE WOW!!!! Those sinks look absolutly amazing!!!! I love the applications. The wood surround is stunning. I want a big high back splash sink with a soap holder but I didn't see any on their web site.(no soap holders) I need to re-call Nor'East today to find out what the shipping will be to FL.. I can't wait to put one in the showroom.. and maybe I can sneak it into my house :)

Thank you Mimi. I worked with John and Donna for months on acquiring salvage for my kitchen reno. It is in the FKB. I used Arts and Craft windows for the cabinet doors, leaded and stained glass for transoms, the two sinks, I got a claw foot tub from them and a HUGE built in china cab that they had removed from a wall in a house that was a tear down. I got 2 slabs of soapstone from them too. That was the only thing that was not so good. There is a large deposit of mineral in one piece that was not possible to avoid. Other than that every thing was PERFECT. They are wonderful people.

The wood countertop is teak. I had a local stone guy fabricate the surround for the big sunroom sink. I love the way it turned out. There are pics of the sinroom on my photobucket acct. You can access it on "My Page".

I love the work that I see you guys doing. You are both really great business people. Thanks again, Caroline

Ricklish -- your hard sample looks and behaves like my Belvedere sample -- very hard to scratch and it doesn't feel like the other soapstones I have.

I don't have samples of of the other two Mimi mentioned to compare.

Thanks florida_mim and borngrace! We've finally decided on our ss and I'm VERY excited. We went back out to Rock Tops this morning and Bob showeed us some beautiful Mariana Reserve Clear - a little harder than the Santa Rita - but still has some beautiful movement. We're all set! Except, of course, he had some great ss apron front sinks, hmmm!

ricklish, that's great!
I picked up my cut pieces of mariana reserve clear on saturday, and have them sitting on the cabinets right now!

I'm in love for sure. I oiled one piece and left the other as they are for now, i just couldn't help myself. I still have the edging and rounding work to do, and they aren't glued down yet, but they look fantastic (especially with the stainless apron front sink i got on ebay)

I'll try to get some pics up soon! I chose the mariana over the santa rita for the same reasons. I've got some great viens in mine, and when it's oiled there are shades of green and purple depending on the light.

one thing i've already noticed with the mariana samples I hd, the more you oil it, the darker it gets. the little lighter speckles also fade a bit. oiling DOES look different than just the water you can spray on it at the warehouse.

if you want it to look the way it does when you first oil it, and not get any darker, then you should use the oil/beeswax blend.

You're more than welcome to come by and check everything out at my place if you like. I can show you the oiled stone and give you some of the oil/beeswax blend if you want. lemme know