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Soapstone with brown veins...???

13 years ago

Has anyone seen soapstone with brown or rust-colored veins? I'm just wondering if this is acceptable or does it mean something's wrong or what.

We went to M Teix a few days ago to look at remnants and they had some slabs of what they said were Santa Rita Venata (remnants aren't marked with the type), but the veins were brown instead of white. DH really liked the different color but I wasn't sure.

Has anyone ever seen this? Could it still be SRV or might it be something else? Just checking to make sure there isn't some awful dilemma with this coloration (i.e., "brown veins means it is a horrible crack, inferior stone, etc") or whatever. It is a pretty soft stone, which I know SRV is, because I could easily scratch/chip it. Has anyone seen soapstone like this? Thoughts, opinions?

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Comments (6)

bireland
13 years ago
We have 3 different soapstones. Our malibu (which is lighter green) has brown veins and this is typical. One other slab has brown-ish veins along with more predominant white. I don't know what mineral content this is...hoping more knowledgable folks can help you.
leela4
13 years ago
Our soapstone (not installed yet) is called "smoke" and has veins that are more vanilla-ish than brown, but not really white. I have googled "smoke" but never found it. It is more on the gray/blue side than greenish.
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DP, Yes, try the glass test - try it on both the green parts and the veins. That is cute that your fabricator said it is part granite and part soapstone. Let's see... oh yeah, that's impossible! :) By googling around, it looks like this really is soapstone, judging by one site that said the color will darken over time, which would not happen to a granite-type rock. That, plus your description that it has a soft feeling, makes it sound like soapstone. But the brown veins are likely filled in by another mineral, which is most likely harder. It could be something like calcite, or perhaps quartz. So definitely try the glass scratch on both parts if you can. Let us know what you find out! Karin
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sandlll
13 years ago
I went to see soapstone last month and there were definitely slabs that had caramel color veins running thru...
gam51
13 years ago
We have one large brown vein in ours...really the reason we bought the piece; we love it. Our understanding is that it is actually harder than the soapstone. We've had it installed for over a year and no issues with it.
darbuka
13 years ago
Looks like Malibu Green to me. M. Teixeira is holding a large slab for us,
which will go on our island, whenever the heck our house gets built.

The stone is actually a serpentinite, with just enough talc to qualify as
soapstone. It is much harder than soapstone, and pretty near
indestructible. Also, it doesn't get oiled, just leave it as is.

A short while ago, M. Teixeira had just a few small slabs left. They must
have sold out, as I see now that the stone is no longer listed.

The brown veins, btw, are iron deposits.

Hope that helps.
darbuka
13 years ago
Jenswrens...Rereading your post, I noticed that you said you could easily
chip and scratch the stone. I certainly couldn't do that to my sample, so
perhaps it's not Malibu Green.

Sure looks like it though. I've never seen any other stone in M. Teixeira's
collection that is light green with brown veins.

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