What to do with soap stone?

Darren Wright

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I've been doing some local on-line auctions here and last week I picked up a case of soap stone sticks for $10. I've given several boxes away and a couple more spoken for, but still leaves me with about half of a case.

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If anyone wants some and wants to pay the shipping, they are welcome to it (120 sticks per box I think), but just trying to figure out what I can use some of it for otherwise. To be honest it's not that expensive at the store, so shipping it may be more than it's worth at any quantity. BTW...I have 3 sticks that I bought for marking metal, probably 8 years ago, and I'm still on my first stick. :rolleyes:
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Couple of Q's.

What are the dimensions on the sticks?
How hard is it (easily scratches with a fingernail, difficult to scratch with a fingernail, can't scratch with a fingernail)?

I've been occasionally playing around with carving some, it carves really nice with abrasive and scrapers but doesn't cut so good :rolleyes: The stuff you have looks possibly harder and certainly clearer than the oregon sourced stone I have.
 
I think that's a bit thin for most of the project I'm thinking of.. hmm... will have to think on this.

More ideas:
  • A set of hot plates with grooves cut to inlay the soapstone into. You could even fancy up the soapstone little but I think it would look pretty spiffy anyway.
  • Use the sticks as scales for a letter opener. The trick of course would be fastening them, epoxy might work.. You could cut grooves/holes on the ends and pour (lead free) pewter around that and file back to make and endcap and bolster. Some of the older ones (mostly in jade from the orient) were wire wrapped on the ends and/or the middle which can look pretty good as well.
 
To bad those are not solid chunks. Soap stone is fun to play with in the lathe.

I suppose a person could use pieces of it in a segmented bowl. Or glue a few pieces together and make pens. CA glue works with it.
 
Vaughn,

I'm not quite sure what to say or ask so I'll just bite the bullet so to speak. Where in the heck do you come up with these things? Where did your parents go wrong? How has the Family Woodworking group survived this? Just think back to the Kamakazi Squirrel!!!

In conclusion I say, "Thank gosh for automatic pencils."

Enjoy,
JimB
 
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