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Any problems with Julia soapstone?

12 years ago

I remember reading some months ago about a poster whose soapstone left rings that didn't oil out and I can't remember who she is and which ss she has. I'm looking at a Julia stone from M.T. in SF--any caveats? I do have a little piece to abuse but more than anything I value the advice given here!

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Comments (9)

lightlystarched
12 years ago
That was BayAreaFrancy I think.
babushka_cat
12 years ago
search the forum, i recall there was a poster who had concerns about hardness of that stone.
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fern4: I believe Florida-Joshua considers his techniques proprietary so an answer from him on why honing is desirable might be too revealing. So let me take a stab at your question from a materials point of view, since I don't have any proprietary knowledge. Most soapstone types sold today have various inclusions in them. They aren't pure talc. Belvedere, for example, seems to have quartz inclusions. To sand quartz and talc together without causing waves requires a "sandpaper" with a cutting material good for quartz, such as silicon carbide or diamond, and a very flat platen to sand with, and no pressure mistakes. Sometimes, as in car body finishing (at least in the lacquer days), better results are obtained by using a fine grit in a carrier liquid than using wet sandpaper. I can imagine the following. To get good oil retention on the talc, a fairly coarse grit is needed. But for the inclusions a finer grit is needed to keep them shiny. If a final honing with fine grit is used over the coarser sanded talc portions, it will not take down the grooves in the talc very much, and one gets the desired results -- a polish on the quartz and little degradation of the talc surface pattern. This assumes that the final coarse sanding was brief enough to not cut deep grooves into the quartz. I wouldn't expect to get this process, if it is even valid, to work well without a lot of experience. kas
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sjerin
Original Author
12 years ago
Yes, did a search of this site but didn't find what I was looking for. Maybe I'll try google. Man, this forum moves FAST! Thanks for answering.
doggonegardener
12 years ago
We've got Julia. We love it. It's harder than many. We finished it ourselves. I am certainly not an expert but I'd happily answer any questions you have.

Ne
Rudebekia
12 years ago
I've had Julia for three years ago and absolutely love it. It is beautiful and very, very hard. I get no water rings on mine and there are no problems with it. Mine is a very deep emerald green; everyone who enters my kitchen immediately "pets" it. Here is a close up:
Lake_Girl
12 years ago
"pets it" that's so funny. I've heard Julia is a harder variety. I wonder if the rings have more to so with how it's finished, than the stone itself.
Rudebekia
12 years ago
lake girl, I think you are correct: the rings have to do with the finishing process. From what I've read on the soapstone threads, you can re-do an improper finish to eliminate them. Anyway, mine must have been finished correctly because I have no problem with rings whatsoever.
doggonegardener
12 years ago
We have no ring issues either. We sanded with increasingly fine papers and have alternated randomly between oil and a beeswax/oil combo shifting to the beeswax/oil combo for good after just 2-3 oilings. I am NOT careful with them. Love them. Would do them again. Gorgeous green tones and lots of swirly veining. Very hard.

Ne
sjerin
Original Author
12 years ago
Oh, this is soooooooo good to hear! We were happy to see the slabs back at MT after an absence of several years but then I ran across a post that made me pause. Thanks for the reassurance. Now, if only they weren't so darned pricey! Bite the bullet, Erin.

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