Based on the reactions stone dealers give when I inquire about soapstone, you'd think it was mined in Chernobyl.
"You don't want soapstone," said Sam who runs the stone dealership at an upscale kitchen design studio near my house. "Not unless you're building a museum kitchen. You're not building a museum kitchen, are you? You like to cook. You don't want soapstone."
(I wondered how he knew I like to cook; was there a spaghetti splotch on my shirt? Wait, we were talking on the phone.)
Like most of the dealers and design studios in my area, Sam doesn't even carry soapstone, but he can get it if a customer insists. He suggested Virginia Mist honed granite. "It looks just like soapstone," he said. "You're going to love it. Virginia. Mist. HONED."
I drove the 40 minutes it takes to get 10 miles to a stone distributor (which is different from a stone dealer) and checked out the Virginia Mist HONED granite. It's a muted grey stone that's not bad, but it's not soapstone. Oiled soapstone has a dark, stars-in-the-sky quality. It looks like the Milky Way on a warm night. It feels silkier than granite and warmer than marble, and after you oil it every day for three or four months, it develops a dark, textured patina.
I went to Expo. "You don't want soapstone," said the counter-guy (repeating what another Expo counter-guy said to Husband and I a few months ago). "It's a nightmare! Remember the tables in your high school chemistry lab? Soapstone."
Husband said "If soapstone can survive decades of high school chemistry experiments, certainly you can stuff a turkey on it?
"It scratches," the Expo guy said.
At Chicago's Merchandise Mart, one of the stone dealers (I forget the name) displays a beautiful slab of soapstone that's marred by several gouges. It looks like it was used to line a kitty-litter box. "We just want people to know what they're buying," said the sales rep.
Beeta, who works at yet another stone dealership, said in careful English (she's Indian): "We do not like to sell it. It is too soft. You do not want to spend all this money and then to have your counter filled with scratches. No it is much better to chose the granite."
So you'd think I'd throw in the towel on soapstone. But I like the way it looks. My kitchen's going to have a beadboard ceiling and exposed brick wall with a little stained-glass window in it. There are a lot of natural, nubby-looking textures going on and I like the weight soapstone adds to the mix. I also like that it's been around forever---in the 1920s (when my house was built), soapstone was a popular material for kitchen sinks and fireplace surrounds. Also, Husband likes it.
If you're interested in learning more about this material, there's a lively and informative thread about the pros and cons of soapstone at: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/?911
(Thanks "Becoming Home" for steering me to this site!)
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