Nice! I haven't picked out my soapstone yet, but I think that looks great. Have you had them wet it for you? or won't you be oiling?

I visited a home that had soapstone from Finland and it was beautiful. Had a fair amount of veining and it was oiled, so very dark grey. I did not notice any green or other colors, the veining in this was consistently white. The owner loved it.

Ooh, I do like how the slab looks. But hard to tell, whenever a slab pic looks bad I assume its because the photos are never in good lighting conditions and it always looks different with the lighting in a warehouse.

looks much much better than the soapstone I saw in several Boston warehouses earlier in the year. That soapstone was from Brazil (I think) and almost looked like it was polka dotted. This is really stunning. Do they tell you how hard it is? I thought I heard somewhere that some soapstones are harder than others and thus less prone to "patina".

They did wet it down for me. Unlike other soapstones I have been looking at, it didn't change dramatically - just deepened the black and highlighted the light green.
The woman told me that this type was very hard, and unlike other soapstones can even be sealed? this didn't sound right, but since I won't be sealing, it didn't matter that much to me.

I would insist on getting a sample 4"x4" minimum, a 12x12 piece is ideal, to bang around, oil, leave glasses for water rings, try scratching, sanding chipping etc.

that way, when you commit to a slab, you know what you're in for. too many people on this board have been surprised by a feature of their stone AFTER installation

Would you mind telling me where you found soapstone? I am in metro Detroit and I have just been looking for places that carry it. We had soapstone at our home in Chicago before we moved here last year and we loved it so much. I can't wait to put it in this kitchen.

sugarbreak - I have been making the soapstone rounds in metro Detroit & this week I saw Finlandia soapstone at Terrazzo Stone in Farmington Hills. Terrazzo is very close to Dwyer Marble & Stone which just got a new shipment of GM Original. I also think I saw Finlandia at The Marble & Granite Gallery on Telegraph in Southfield. Since I can't find any soapstone I like (looking for something very gray with white veining), I am thinking of going with vermont slate now. Ohh--PMP Marble in Troy had 2 kinds of soapstone, but I got such terrible service there and no one would answer my questions that I refuse to buy from them.