As your stone naturally darkens, the difference around the sink becomes less apparent. We oiled our counter around a half dozen times in the first few months, but haven't done so in at least 3 months. There's no noticeable difference now between the sink and the rest of the stone.

You can find most past threads doing a google search. Just type gardenweb after the topic in the search bar and the old threads will come up.

theresse, it's me you are referring to in your post. If you buy a light grey colored soapstone and want it to be a darker color, you will have to oil it. The soap dripping off your hands and from the soap dispenser (this latter one is the real culprit) will lift the mineral oil from the stone and you will see the light grey color coming through--splotchy looking. I would suggest you find a soapstone color you like without oiling it. However, I think as soap drips from your hands and from the dispenser, you will now get blotchy oily spots on the soapstone. I've delt with soapstone in my home for 25 yrs. and I do not recommend the light grey soapstone. You might be better off finding another product that mimics it.

I posted a picture way back when about this and I think I scared the OP away from soapstone with my uneven coloration and spots. However, I stopped using the Dawn foaming dish soap and the spots have really decreased or even disppeared. I suppose Dawn is one of the strongest grease cutters so it was lifting off all the oil.

Now that Mrs. Meyers dishwashing liquid is at Target, I am using that without any spotting at all.

It really is easy to keep the oily rag under the sink and just give a quick swipe and the spots disappear anyhow.

Google searches are less effective in looking for very recent threads, but they're the only way to pull up older ones that the internal GW search function doesn't cover at all. After the search terms, add this text: site:ths.gardenweb.com

As a workaround to the balkiness of the GW search function for following recent threads, particularly ones on which you've posed questions, either:

1. Bookmark them in your browser
or
2. Make a little text file in which you copy the URL of the thread (with a short description or thread title to help you tell one from another). Then copy and paste into your browser's address line to check on the thread.

The area around my sink doesn't look any different, but I have a dark green, hard soapstone and I've never oiled it. I think it has a lot to do with the variety of soapstone you get, and whether or not you oil it regularly. If you do oil, I imagine it would be quite easy as cleo_2007 said, to just keep an oiled rag around and give it a quick swipe every once in a while if it does get lighter.

theresse, I've been clipping information from soapstone posts for a few months now, including several threads on which you've posted.

Harder varieties mentioned:

Quarried in Albemarle County, Virginia:
-Alberene (not veined, some green flecking or tint)
maximum slab size 31 x 60 inches, ready availability.
-Church Hill (veined; hardest of the patterned varieties available from Alberene Soapstone)
restricted availability, even smaller maximum slab size, typically 48"-54"

Imported
- Julia (Brazilian, I think) is said to be one of the hardest of the dark grey varieties.

Do I remember correctly that you're in the Pacific NW? This thread from May 2009 has contributions from PNWers megpie77 and morgne. It seems likely the Seattle distributor mentioned would be your source, and has Julia available. So you may want to check with them (morgne by thread title shout-out, megpie directly; she has 'send me an email' feature enabled on her member page.

This was among the first results from googling 'hardest soapstone'.

Soapstone vendors in your area are certain to have some informed opinions on relative hardness of varieties they sell. Fabricators with soapstone experience may, too; at a minimum they should be able to point you to customers with soapstone installations who you can talk to about their experience -- including where those customers' choice of stone seems to fall on the hardness scale.

@theresse:

In light of your complaint in another thread about few members having enabled the email function on their member page, you might want to consider enabling it on yours. That way, someone who sees a question on a thread you might be having trouble relocating could get word to you.

While logged in, go to the Members Page (the 'registered members' link near the bottom of every thread, or the 'Member Pages' tab near the bottom of your own member page) and click on 'Edit Your Personal Information, Page, and Preferences' (you may have to re-login just to confirm). Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check the box by 'Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site.' Save the profile and you're done.

Many GW users, I's sure, would be pleased to see more members enable that feature on their pages. Theresse's post made me realize I hadn't and prompted me to correct that.

Regarding discoloration around the sink, thank you so much, Cheri, Springwater, Cleo, and Donka! Your comments put my mind at ease...it seems the variety of solutions are pretty simple when there is a bit of splotching. I'm not interested in keeping the original light grey, but of finding some compromise between that and the freshly oiled, darkest look (unless the darkest look is a charcoal as opposed to black). Scoll down a bit on this thread to see a soapstone that is very appealing to me: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0110311030000.html?11 While it's perhaps a tad darker than I like, there's a certain "warmth" to her soapstone or maybe the word is softness (and yes, I want a harder variety but that soapstone looks...ok maybe cozy is the word?). ;) I haven't completely ruled out caesarstone as an alternative but I'm still hoping to find the best compromise in soapstone. AB honed granite just has too many issues.

Ellabee, thank you for being so helpful! I appreciate the info you shared on harder varieties! Re. finding my old posts, I've been googling and saving my threads but the problem is that for whatever reason, when I click on them later, I can't respond to those that have been kind enough to respond - if I do it that way. So then I feel so rude for not being able to reply! But I get these windows of opportunity (3 small kids so always falling asleep at the laptop when I DO have time to do this stuff!) and those windows seem to close before I can figure all this stuff out. Thanks very much for the link to the other thread on NW posters that have soapstone! I've saved that link as well.

I hope I didn't complain about people not providing email addresses (what whiner!)...but yes I know I wrote something about it. It's funny - I was sure mine was set up and thanks to YOU, I see that wasn't the case. So I hopefully fixed that now.

Thanks again everyone! I'm *hoping* to have my 3 countertop/backsplash choices narrowed down to at least 2 by tomorrow, and 1 by Monday night!!! My contractor emailed me and said let's get on it. SO HARD deciding between soapstone, stainless and wood for countertops! They're all so beautiful if done right (and with the apron sink, classic faucet, a very nice backsplash and wood floors)! :)

I just wanted to second the idea that if you want soapstone that you don't have to oil to maintain the look/color you like the best solution is to start with stone that is the color you like in its natural state, without oiling.

I've never oiled our soapstone, which is naturally a dark gray but goes to a solid black when oiled. I prefer the natural color and especially prefer not having to do anything to keep it looking the way I like it. Our stone is Beleza (from Dorado Soapstone in Austin, Texas) and it's quite hard. We have a few very small dings around our sink edge but after 18 months nothing more than that.

Thanks sw! I've added that company to my list of "good examples" lists. I like the one you chose the best, however I'm wondering if the example (of unoiled vs. oiled) is inaccurately light? Because their darkened color didn't look too black at all.

I would say that our stone looks more like their picture of Beleza leathered and unoiled, although ours may have darkened a bit over the last 18 months. I do have some photos from when it was just installed that look more like the plain Beleza unoiled but I think the flash lightened those pictures. I can take current pictures and post them if you'd like.

Our stone definitely reads dark charcoal gray, even black, at a distance, and a more mottled dark gray on closer inspection. It has a few greenish areas, mostly visible in direct sunlight or under the undercabinet lights.

When we bought our stone in May 2008 the Austin office only had Beleza and Minas and the unoiled Minas they had then was darker than what is shown on the website.

We are installing Python, one of the exotics from Brazil from M. Teixeira. It is one of the harder varieties. I have 2 samples that I got Thanksgiving weekend, and one I have never oiled, and the other I have oiled about 6 times. I am very pleased with the color of the oiled sample. It is a nice even charcoal grey, which is exactly what I was going for. Sorry I don't have any pics at the moment!

I believe that the other Brazilian exotics that M. Teix carries are also harder varieties: Mumbai Grey and Cobra. I have seen them in person, and they are beautiful. The other 2 things that you need to consider is 1) do you want any green, or not, 2) what kind of veining do you want, and 3) the slabs are not all the same sizes. My stone only comes in small slabs, so I will have seams in my peninsula, which I wouldn't have if I chose, for example, black venata, I could have it in one piece.

Have you contacted any places for samples? I found that was very helpful. I got several sets of samples from several companies, and was able to eliminate many right away.