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janedavid59

Finishing/Sanding Soapstone

Jane David
7 years ago

Hi everyone - I can't tell you how helpful all the past posts
about soapstone have been in my kitchen reno process. My kitchen is done and I
have lovely Original PA counters!

Unfortunately, my GC's
fabricators were clueless when it came to preparing the countertop for
installation and finishing the seams (ugh, another story for another day). And
one of the installers rubbed on some sealer called AGE before I knew what was
happening. So I'm doing some "afterwork" to get things the way I'd
like them.

As seems to be the common situation,
the slab came from the warehouse with a very smooth high shine and the fabricator did not sand it down. I have since been
working on it to get the finish I want. I first tried sanding by hand, but
finally pulled out my random orbital sander and sanded it down with 80 grit.
(By the way, hooking that little sucker to my shop-vac equipped with a drywall
dust bag was amazing at reducing dust!!) I've read in a few places that some
fabricators think leaving the stone at 80 grit is the way to go. However, I
still have a lot of little bumps and spots that i can feel and that are shinier
than adjacent areas. It looks and feels very leathery.

I'm not sure if those
are just areas of harder stone or leftover sealer or what. Should it be fairly uniform in terms of texture/color (excluding veining) after using the 80? Should I do another
round of 80 grit to even things out more and then maybe go up to 120? I don't want to keep sanding if all I'm doing is
sanding away softer stone and leaving harder stone, with the continuing bumpiness.

Here's a photo of what
the counter top looked like post-80-sanding, with no treatment of course. You
can see that it wasn't all uniform, and you can see the original dark color on the edges.

And here's a photo a couple days after using Holland wax/oil treatment. The light areas of reflection clearly show the leathery surface.

And one more - a real close-up. It doesn't feel as bumpy as it looks in this picture though.

Last question for those of you that use the wax/oil combo - how
much do you buff after letting it dry for a bit? I feel like I can still see
the marks from my towel after buffing, like the wax doesn't really dry the way
it would on a car.

Thanks so much for any
advice!

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