I have Minas, a dark, hard variety. It looks like this:

{{!gwi}}

I'm still in the first blush of new love after about 4 weeks, but I have no regrets. Mine is virtually no maintenance (I don't think I'll be oiling) and it seems to hold its own against my family of two sloppy adults and 3 kids aged 9, 7, and 4 who are very active in the kitchen.

I ran into uninformed salespeople as well. It drove me nuts!

Anita

I have had mine for 2 years...never a minutes regret. It has "patina" galore. I don't mind. I could show you how wonderful it is for kneading dough and thawing anything...it runs the gamut as far as the best surface in the kitchen. I have never oiled BTW. You would never know it by the look of the areas where I knead etc.they have a lovely dark color that does not disappear when I scrub with dish soap.

You have to love an organic surface. If not, then perhaps ss is not for you. Hope you find a knowledgable sales person. c

anita,
i almost didn't recognize your kitchen from that angle! good to hear it is holding up! is minas a true soapstone or serpentine? where is it from?

trailrunner,
thanks for the info! i definitely plan to do a lot of kneading on mine-- if I can find someone to sell it to me.

Danielle,

My Minas came in slabs from Dorado Soapstone in Colorado (Jim Avery was my salesperson) and was fabricated locally. As far as I know it is a soapstone; I don't know the difference between soapstone and serpentine myself, but I asked for and was told I bought soapstone.

Anita

there's a difference, though, between hardness and porosity. the problem is that the fabricators equate hardness with porosity and assume that if something is soft that it is also porous. not true.

around here, soapstone is not very popular (yet).. so, I think the issue is ignorance on the part of the salespeople/managers I've dealt with. all tell me right off "It is much more porous than granite".. once I start on the porous vs. hardness bit, they then insist it is both soft and hardness... so, the particular problem I am dealing with here is that they are indeed UNinformed. Perhaps once there is a higher demand in this market, they'll have to become a bit more educated on the topic.

Danielle,

Where are you? Here in Kansas I found a lot of misinformation about soapstone. I was told to stay away from it because the maintenance is awful; it will stain; I would have to seal it constantly; it is very porous, etc.

Now that I think about it, I was also told that I couldn't get everything I wanted in my kitchen :) That was wrong, too. Don't let them bother you; just keep looking. Call fabricators until you find one with experience with soapstone and they'll help you find the slabs.

I was lucky to find one very experienced fabricator who did not balk at all at my shipping in slabs from Dorado, knew what we were dealing with in terms of characteristics and qualities, and helped me get what I needed.

I was told by one fabricator that they had a special clinic back when she worked at one of the big box companies (HD or Lowes, i forget) where they went over all of the negatives of soapstone & slate as counter materials. They ended up getting a lot more complaints from customers over those two products because people weren't informed about what they were buying, so at this clinic they were taught to discourage people from using them.

If it is what you really want, stick with it and you'll find some that works for you.

Anita

According to Wikipedia, soapstone "...undergoes transformations when heated to temperatures of 1000-1200 °C into enstatite and cristobalite; in the Mohs scale, this corresponds to an increase in hardness from 1 to 5.5-6.5...." If so, does anyone know about Brazing its surface with heat? I've seen this done to granite.

David

Hopefully, those who are selling soapstone for countertops are not selling the same kind of soapstone that the Inuits and others sculptors use for carvings! Although the stones go by the same name, there actually are two different kinds of soapstone. If interested, follow the link below to www.Gardenstatesoapstone.com (my own supplier/fabricator's website) where you will find the blurb that briefly discusses this difference.

Here is a link that might be useful: 2 Kinds of Soapstone

I appreciate the difference and I wish you the best in finding what you are looking for but I'm not convinced that soapstone is the next wave in countertops it certainly doesn't seem to be catching on in this market either (not much demand but who knows what the future will bring).

Soapstone is in a lot of the kitchen magazines in the past year. Martha Stewart and Paula Dean both put it in their kitchens. And many people on the GW have chosen soapstone as their countertop and truly love it. It is not for everyone, but for those who want an organic countertop that is nonporous and doesn't need chemicals to seal it, that is hard enough to be work as a laboratory countertop, but soft enough that every dish that falls on it doesn't shatter into a million pieces, soapstone may be a counter you want to consider.

Here's a pic of Paula Deen's kitchen with soapstone countertops.

{{!gwi}}

I've had my soapstone for 3 years and absolutely LOVE it. Its my most favorite part of the remodeled kitchen. I love the way it looks and feels. I love the way I can put dishes straight from the oven on it. It is not high maintenance at all. There are two things that can be a pain (1) water marks. Just a glass or wet dish on the counter won't do it (unless it sits for a long long time)but around the sink area, where the soap dispenser sits needs oiling more often to keep it dark.
(2) If I roll out dough on the counter it picks up the oil from the counter.
Other than those 2 things its perfect. If I remodeled my kitchen again I would choose soapstone in a heartbeat. I have Ipanema from Soapstone West. Not cheap though. Cost me $6000!!

marthavila,

Thanks for that I am familiar with steatite (also used in carvings) but have never seen it referred to as soapstone (itself a generic term without much meaning - at least to a geologist). The process for carving steatite is very different from soapstone due to the very different properties of the stone. It is much easier to understand how steatite could serve as a countertop surface. My employer has some gorgeous steatite sculptures in its Art Collection.

Caryscott, I'm not quite sure that the terminology is all that important for purposes of the point I'm trying to make. However, a basic google search of "soapstone + steatite" produces a plethora of results where the terms are described as interchangeable. Here's my basic point from a totally lay perspective: I am a collector of Shona art from Zimbabwe and a good deal of my pieces are made from soapstone. But the "soapstone" of those carvings is quite unlike the "soapstone" samples I've considered for my counter top. The latter definitely feels harder and worthy of use as a kitchen counter surface.

Thanks for the input on counters! I'm aware soapstone can be used for sculptures-- I think marble can too ;o) In any case, I'm sure there are advantages and disadvantages to most kitchen surfaces... some surfaces etch, stain, and are porous-- others need to be sealed with harsh chemicals.. in any case, soapstone is softer and can scratch... I'm sure most people who got soapstone (or just considered it!) factored into their decisions.

Just to chime in with (most) everyone else: what ignorance abounds in the stone yards! I suppose the best response to someone who claims soapstone is porous is to ask why it is that granite (VERY porous) has to be sealed yet soapstone does not. It is incredibly dense, impossible to stain or burn. Almost three years out and we love our soapstone counters. In California they are quite popular and fit seamlessly into any style. Practical, durable, beautiful.

I searched high and low in several languages, and found that there is laboratory grade soapstone, with a hardness greater than limestone's (about 6), and sculpture grade soapstone, the softest. Steatite (soapstone) is found in different hardnesses, even inside the same quarry.

David

I have had Green Mountain Original counters for over a year now and I still absolutely love them. It does take a while for the patina to develop but they look fabulous and organic. It's been months since I oiled and do not baby them at all. I roll out dough and plunk the hot pizza stone or hot pans right on the counter. It's great for thawing frozen things quickly, too! That's a benefit I didn't expect. If I ever do another kitchen I will install it again.

It's main component, talc, is hydrophilic. And it is acid resistant. It's soft, but it certainly is not porus.