I'm curious too!

My fabricator didn't get my stone silky enough, so I've been working on it myself. I've had the best luck with 220 grit regular sandpaper (by hand), and then wet 400 (by hand). But you do have to know exactly when to stop, else it gets wavy. Usually I do stop in time. But not always...

For my wavy spots, how do I return them to smooth? Back to 220 to sand the harder stuff down?

Francy

If you have some 5" wet diamond pads you can use them dry. Wet is better, but I've found that the soapstone won't mess up a wet pad if it's used dry and you won't get the burn marks on the stone like you will on other materials. It's important to hold the pad flat the whole time you're using it and do not apply much pressure. If you're working out waviness around hard or soft spots(usually veined areas) or are starting with a raw stone you will want to start with a 30 or 50 grit pad. Go through your steps until you reach the desired smoothness. I usually go 30 grit, 50 grit, 100 grit. If you use a finer grit after that, that's fine, but do it in steps without skipping. The diamond pads will usually leave swirl marks on the stone, so after the 100 grit diamond pad I switch from the hone I was using for them to an orbital palm sander. Any orbital sander will do, but if you have a 6 inch or larger, that's best. Go over the stone quickly with 100 or 120 grit silicon carbide sand paper, then any higher grit in steps if that's what you want and that should do the trick for you.
Be aware that the softer soapstones are less forgiving and that you need to do them quickly. If you dawdle in a spot you will make it wavy. Be careful around veins as that will be the spots where there are the greatest hardness differences. Hold the hone pads and sand paper flat while you're working.
If you have 4 inch pads instead of 5 inch, the job is still achievable, but it will be more difficult. Again, I can't stress it enough, hold those pads flat and dont use much pressure. I find that the weight of the hone and sander puts enough pressure on the stone for you.

BTW vislalover did their kitchen with soapstone DIY and they did a professional job. perhaps you could also shoot them an email. or ask if someone saved the thread- I think they gave detailed instructions. HTH Sue

Thanks Kevin, that's certainly along the lines of what I've been finding.
My dry diamond pads are 5" in 100, 200 and 400. I've been using them on a palm random orbit sander. On my roughest spots I've started with 100, then stepped up through 200 and 400. 100 seems plenty aggressive to me but I didn't have much correction to do.
I've tried 4" pads on a variable speed rotary polisher (slow as possible) and agree they're just too hard to keep flat.
Ever tried a dual action orbital polisher like detailers use on cars? (Is that basically what a 'hone' is?) I have one and might give it a run on some scraps to test. In my head tho I think it might be too hard to control for SS. I'll certainly report back here with my results!

- Don

Hi,
I bought my SS gaged, not honed so I had to dress all 45 Sq Ft.
I used 220 and 400 grit dry diamond discs (metal-backing) it seems like flexible pads would be as bad as hand sanding for waviness, but I never tried them...
I used (sacrificed) a 5" makita ROS for the task. I had tried hand-sanding for the honing, and it wasn't happening, so I had to take drastic measures (Discs that cost $40 ea. is a drastic measure to me)
I went back to 150 silicon carbide wet after the diamond, which only got rid of the gaging scratches. I used 180, 240, and finished at 320 grit. I used a wood block with the coarser grits, only used a (solid) rubber for the 320. My SS is really hard, Alberene's Church Hill variety.
I also used a wood block for the roundover edges, as the router left them wavy as the carbide bit skipped over the harder inclusions.
A hard block is the key to keep it flat.
Casey

Is it normal for the areas with veins to be "uneven"? That is, I can feel the veins with my eyes closed. I'm not sure I'm up to fixing this myself--I'm afraid that in trying to sand the harder veins, I will lose too much of the softer surrounding "talc." Thinking I just have to live with the feel of the veins. Which I can. But it sure would be nice to have it all be smooth and even. But maybe that isn't possible?

When I was at M. Teixeira, I noticed that lots of their finished sinks felt slightly wavy. I guess this is a hard thing for even the pros to get just right. Unless they were going for a slightly wavy feel on purpose.

Francy

It is possible to get the veining to where you can't feel the differences, just difficult. I have guys in the shop that I really have to watch to make sure that they don't "over do it". People have a tendency to try to get the surface perfect when they would have been better off just stopping when it was good. Over working a piece will make it wavy as the more honing you do or the more sanding you do will actually keep "pulling" the softer material from around the harder material.
The Beatrice stone from Stone Trade comes to us with the wavy feeling, but ever so slightly. Those guys know not to try and make the stone too flat as they know it will probably just get worse if they try. There are a lot of white veins that are harder than the surrounding grey stone. The stone is indexed very well which, to me, is more important than a perfectly smooth surface.
P.A. stone from Green Mountain Soapstone is almost black with white veining. It is one of the hardest soapstones I've dealt with and easier to keep a smooth surface on.
All the different soapstone have their own unique characteristics and need to be dealt with in the manner that gets the best result for that particular stone.
As far as sinks go, there is a lot of honing that goes into dishing out a sink base, therefore it is more difficult to eliminate all the waviness.
In answer to Don, The dual action orbital sanders are exactly what we use. The hones we use are pneumatic hones. We also use electric ones. Both are basically just an angle grinder with a water port going into the shaft that holds the backer.

Thanks again everyone for chiming in. I gave my Porter Cable dual action polisher a try today. I have 240 and 400 grit 5" wet pads for it and a rigid backer. It was quite a wrestling match to keep under control, especially with a fresh pad. But once the initial bite wore off it settled down and worked pretty well. I did see a few little loopy scratches, maybe from some random particle getting trapped under the pad, but overall it kept the stone flat and made for a nice finish.
I think I'll continue to use the dry diamond pads to do the initial major corrections and then finish up with the DA and 400 grit pads and/or hand block where appropriate. I agree with Casey that a hard block is important, I even tried a piece of scrap stone as a block! It worked well but was heavy to move around. This project is fun but getting spendy on abrasives!

- D

OK, one more update for the record and I'll shut up.

Further experimentation with the Porter Cable has yielded exactly the result I was looking for: a simple, consistent machine based process with stunning results.

My initial attempt with the Porter Cable was using a 5" rigid backer pad to hold the wet sandpaper. As mentioned, it was very hard to handle and a little scary. So I tried a more flexible backer - a good quality one sold for buffing cars. It worked like a dream, easy to handle and move around smoothly. And the result was a perfectly flat and smooth surface. I started with 240 grit which did a great job and I probably could have stopped there but chose to finish up with 400 - this is a matter of personal preference really. As you work around a muddy slurry will develop, just keep adding a little water from a spray bottle as needed and mop up if it gets to be too much. The mess is manageable, but be careful of splatter from the spinning pad. Set up some cardboard walls around the area you're working on if you're indoors and don't want to be wiping down walls later!
I wouldn't try it for edges or round overs - those are easy enough with a hand block.
Best part is, this isn't a stone specific tool - later in the spring I'll be using it on my car too!

So to answer my own original question with product specifics:

Porter Cable Dual-Action Polisher, model 7424 or 7336.

5" backer pad found at Autogeek:
http://www.autogeek.net/porter-cable-7424-7336-backing-plates.html

5" Rockmaster wet sanding paper 240 and 400 grit found at MasterWholesale:
http://www.masterwholesale.com/details/1061005423.html

The sanding pads do wear out rather quickly but are only 54 cents each so it's not too painful.

- D