I am in the middle of planning my kitchen. I will have both soapstone and an endgrain butcher block on one the the smaller separate counters. I did this because I know my family and they will not be able to resist the temptation to cut on the counter. Doing the butcher block will give them an area to make sandwiches and snacks .

joshua, I appreciate your comments as you are THE soapstone guy around here. Fancy a visit to Halifax? How hard would it be to refinish the backside - I understand this would be the best way to get book matched slabs. Does he need special equipment to do this or is it a function of time and sanding the correct way? In speaking with the soapstone supplier, they indicated getting 2 slabs that are back to back in the same lot is not difficult. Theoretically then, one could get slabs that could be book matched with refinishing the other side of one slab. Joshua, could you give me your opinion on where in this island you would place the seam? If you had book matched slabs would you do it in the middle of the island or would it depend on the pattern of the stone? Ideally in a quiet area? I don't expect every little vein to match. As someone noted, the veins at the top of the seam are a pretty good match but that only covers about a quarter of the seam and the majority of the seam is not well matched. This is on the side of the island where you sit (and hence look at a lot) and where people first come up to the island when they enter the kitchen. My kitchen is also very bright with a great amount of natural light - to the immediate left of this end of the island is a glass slider. The veins and seam in the stone are bathed in light most of the day. I fully expected to ok the soapstone before the install. With the quartzite counters I held up the fabrication for 3 days because I couldn't get there to see the planned cuts. I was as surprised as anyone when he said it was all done and ready to be installed! I didn't even know it had arrived. I thought he would let me know when it arrived and then I would arrange a time to go out and see it. He is a good hour from me. Apparently he does not routinely allow people to see the planned cuts. In fact his words were - this is unheard of...guess he hasn't been dealing with too many tko people :) At the end of the day the world will not come crashing down and I am sure over time I will become accustomed to it. The perfectionist in me cringes when I look at it though.

When we were shopping for Steel Gray granite, different distributors varied from $3300 to $4200 for our 58 sqft of counter. No special edges, but cutout charges on sink, slide-in range, and peninsula 12" radius corner all varied; as well as "free sink", "free edge profile upgrade" offers on top of whatever the base price was. Our final choice installer was about $3600 after tax, or $62/sf, though the nominal square foot charge was $49.

I have not had soapstone myself. Friends who have report it is easy to deal with. It looks good waxed/oiled and not. I could pet their counters forever ... but as they say, I have issues :-) Take a look at the stone and see if you like it. I think a natural stone is a better mate for what you already have than a quartz product.