Stainless is nearly completely renewable. Silegranit is very difficult to scratch, but if you do, you can't get it out. Okay, I can get it out, but the finish won't match and it will look as bad or worse than the scratch. One dropped pan in fireclay and you'll look at the chip until the day you replace it.

Think it depends on what look you are going for. I had a difficult time finalizing my sink with our soapstone choice too. I really like silgranite but it seemed a more modern look than I was going for. Loved the farmsink, DH nixed farm style, so was going with their undermount. Turned out white is what DH really didn't like, so we went with stainless steel. It's worked out well, esp considering I didn't get the very gray soapstone I thought I was going with.

I'm doing exactly the same thing (soapstone/natural cherry/inset.) I am going for an A&C look so am leaning towards the Shaw. Ceramic farmhouse has the feeling of the sinks of the era. And the non-uniformity of Shaw harkens to the hand-made theme of A&C/Craftsman.

That said, I am a little nervous about chips ... but then, we are talking soapstone: I'm expecting a patina.

An alternative I'm considering is one of the Kohler (they warrant the heck out of their enamel these days). But (if I'm reading the drawings correctly) these all feel "dishonest" to me: the apron is artifical. It's not the front to the sink. It's added on simply for looks. That kinda bugs me.

I have the Silgranite sink with my soapstone, and couldn't be happier! It's been in almost two years, and looks as good as the day it was installed, and I do not baby it at all.
Interesting how Mags says she thought the silgranite was "a more modern look" we thought just the opposite, and that the stainless was too much of modern contrast for soapstone, where the silgranite (ours is anthracite) looks almost like the soapstone itself...

Archie, have you spoken to your fabricator about making you a custom soapstone sink? Ours (Stone Studio in Batesville, IN) will be making our farmhouse sink when our kitchen reno is ready for our countertops, etc. I believe that the quoted price is $850. Since our kitchen is so small, the unbroken visual line is more important than it might be in a larger space. I can't wait till we're ready for that step!

@ctycdm - I agree, I think the stainless steel is more modern than what I would have liked. But DH preferred stainless steel over anything else I picked out. After everything is said and done, I would have felt bad if he didn't get to make *any* kitchen decisions on "our" kitchen. So he had his one. :-) and to be honest, it's a deep one and the counterheight window draws your eye right past the sink.

I totally understand, Mags!
Table's turned here, I'm the cook, so my wife pretty much went with anything I wanted in the kitchen... although, she did choose the dish towels ;)

This post was edited by ctycdm on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 23:21

We've had the silgranite big single (anthracite) with soapstone counters for about 10 years now. What I like visually is that the sink disappears into the counter. The long horizontal expanse of countertop is what you see. Functionally, the big single is fantastic, and when we bought a second house we installed the same exact same sink.

If you want the sink to be the star, then choose something else. But if you want a sink that works great and lets the soapstone sing, then I don't think it gets any better than the silgranite big single in anthracite.

Thanks for all the great advice - Still waiting on some things to come together, before we make a final decision.

We are going with Stainless
Boffylou - Would have loved the soapstone sink - but the only soapstone dealer that did sinks in my area was way over ($1,000 for the sink and $1,400 + over other dealers on the counters) - so not him.
In our last house we had Blanco silgranite and it was a great sink, but our water had lots of minerals and I always had to scrub the sink (and all the others sinks as well). I think it just left a bad taste for me. I do love silgranite - I just can't do it again.