Getting stoned again

[Paul Douglass]

Missed my lathe while I was sipping wine at the ocean so I got busy this morning and started on my shaving set. This is what I have done so far on the soap holder. This is Soapstone. I have to make a jam chuck now so I can work on the bottom. I have the Knot to make the brush and the razor blank. I'm a little concerned how well the Knot will stay epoxied in the brush handle. I don't know if epoxy and soapstone work well together.

[John Keeton]

Paul, that is a really nice looking piece - lot of character!! I think that soapstone countertop seams are done with quick set tinted epoxy, but I am not sure what type. You shouldn't have any difficulty with the knot.

[David E Keller]

That's very nice looking. I'm excited to see the whole enchilada once you've had a chance to finish the set. Soapstone is such beautiful material.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Beautiful stone! Looking forward to seeing the finished set!

[John Hart]

Oh man...I am so impressed. I looked at this yesterday and thought about it all evening. I like it a lot. :)

[Bob Way]

Paul, I turn quite a bit of alabaster and soapstone. The epoxy should work very well for bonding the knot to the soapstone.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice piece.

[Tim Rinehart]

Can you share a little about turning soapstone, and where you get material?

I just recently saw that Berea and some other outfits sell the badger knots...had no idea there was so many different kinds, sizes.

Very nice indeed, a revival of a classic. I've thought it would be nice to put together a couple sets and see if my barber would want to display them and ... oh my...perhaps even sell a set! :eek:

[Paul Douglass]

Can you share a little about turning soapstone, and where you get material?

I just recently saw that Berea and some other outfits sell the badger knots...had no idea there was so many different kinds, sizes.

Very nice indeed, a revival of a classic. I've thought it would be nice to put together a couple sets and see if my barber would want to display them and ... oh my...perhaps even sell a set! :eek:


Thanks for the nice comments. I to am anxious to see the rest of it done, but when you go on a vacation there is much to catch up on when you return.

Tim, there was a good discussion about it on this thread:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=140635

Soapstone is very soft and easy to turn. I cut the blank with the band saw and turn it with wood turning tools. I turn at a slow speed under 500 rpm. Sand with regular sandpaper and finish with micro mesh. When you turn it it produces a fine powder like talc. Need to wear a mask, I sure much of it would not do you any good. I have no idea if this is the proper way of doing it, but so far it has worked. There is lots of info on the Internet. I purchased my stone from here over the Internet from Stone Sculptors Supply. There are many other places that carry it. I got great service form these people. I just picked them at random.

I also have some alabaster I plan on trying some day.

Good article I just found:

http://www.woodturningonline.com/Tur...soapstone.html (http://www.woodturningonline.com/Turning/Turning_content/turning_soapstone.html)

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/images/misc/progress.gif

[Tim Rinehart]

Thanks Paul. I sent that company a question about size of blocks you get in an order, did you talk to them about it to get a good idea of size you'd receive?

I think there's some real opportunities with with the stone...thanks so much for sharing. Great work!

[Paul Douglass]

Thanks Paul. I sent that company a question about size of blocks you get in an order, did you talk to them about it to get a good idea of size you'd receive?

I think there's some real opportunities with with the stone...thanks so much for sharing. Great work!

Tim, I bought the
GRAB BAG SPECIAL
Italian Evergreen Soapstone

The pieces I recieved were in the range of 3"X41/2"X3" actually bigger than I expected looking at the picture. Some a little bigger some a little smaller. Says the special ends 6/30. I may order another one. The only problem with turning this is the talc mess. Easy to track through the house, which makes momma a little upset!:rolleyes: I'm a little concerned about what this talc may do to the lathe bearing also, but not concerned enough to not to it.

[Dick Strauss]

Your tailstock and headstock are hard to slide unless you get every bit of the powder/talc off of the ways. If you plan to turn stone, plan to turn only stone for a while because the cleanup takes quite a while.

Soapstone is usually the easiest to turn and sand (Moh's 2). Make sure you get the gypsum type of alabaster (Moh's 1.5-2) rather than the calcite type (Moh's 3+). I've tried white calcite alabaster with black veining. Unfortunately the white portion is quite a bit harder than soapstone (Moh's 3+) while the black veining is even harder (Moh's 4-5 from my testing).

[Paul Douglass]

I don't even know what a "Moh" is. "Measurement of hardness"? Like I said, new at this and learning. I didn't notice any Moh mentioned when I ordered, probably because I didn't know to look for it. Yes it is messy! I sweep what I can, then vacuum, then wipe.

[Dick Strauss]

Paul,
Mohs is a hardness scale based on a diamond being a 10... I mistakenly posted it as a Moh's hardness but it is actually Mohs hardness (named after Friedrich Mohs). It was set up based on which minerals scratched which one. Unfortunately it is not a linear scale as you'll see on the page linked below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness

Some soapstone with high talc content can be close to a Mohs 1