I don't have soapstone, but I want it. Not in the budget right now.

Everything I've ever read if the "cons" (mainly that it patinas and can look heavy) are actually pros for me!

I think if you like worn denim and scuffed leather, antique brass and tarnished silver you'll like soapstone. You probably also have to be willing to commit to it regardless of changing styles; the durability and price tag make it feel like a multiple lifetime investment to me.

Ultimately I would love to put it in my forever home that I hope one of my children will want to inherit. I would not put it in a home I intended to sell at retirement or before.

I wish we had a way to quantify the regret to sales ratio. I'll bet the regret/sales ratio would be as high for soapstone as it is for marble, but probably not as high as concrete or matte finish engineered stone.

I love the look of marble and soapstone and both I know are so different. I was hoping that soapstone would ware better. The thing about marble is the etching that would get me.

Joseph can you give some insight about what causes people to regret soapstone? It seems like most of the discussion I can find is all factual information or speculation.

Soapstone always appealed to me too so I bought some soapstone coasters to see how they would look with use. I became disenchanted very fast due to the water marks, so knew it's not the product for me.

Read this article and all of the comments and then decide:
https://www.houzz.com/magazine/soapstone-counters-a-love-story-stsetivw-vs~27991463
I fall in the ‘love’ camp

Like thinkdesignlive, I fall into the love camp. I had it in my kitchen in my former house so I speak from experience.

I bought what was then Alberene Soapstone (since sold and I don't know the name of the company now) - mined in Virginia - the ONLY place in the US that soapstone is mined. I literally went to the quarry and picked out my slab.

Soapstone is amazing! It is impervious to stains (water marks? nope! wine stains? nope! tomato sauce, mustard, anything else? nope!) It IS soft - made mostly from talc, after all, but scratches can be buffed out easily. It NEVER has to be sealed (please do not confuse oiling the surface to darken it with sealing). Again, it is IMPERVIOUS to stains. Oh, and those super-hot pots/pans/dishes right out of the oven or off the stove top? No worries - just put them on top of the soapstone. Unlike other solid surfaces, heat and/or chemicals will not hurt the soapstone. There is a reason it is used in chemistry labs!

Soapstone is very easy to work. It can be worked with regular wood working tools, is easily sanded and made into whatever shape needed. Then a few coats of food grade mineral oil later, you have a gorgeous countertop that only needs a little wash with soap and water once a week. Re-oil every year or so and you are good to go.

I plan to install it in my next house, as soon as I get around to remodeling the kitchen. Nothing else compares, IMO.

Love the look/idea of soapstone, but was lucky enough to come across enough leather-finished black granite to cover my 3 vanities (the master bath has re-purposed buffets back-to-back), as key for me was NOT to have a glossy finish that would show ever drop of water, etc.

I have soapstone and I love it. I do wax it every once in a while but I really do love the natural look of it. I was afraid of what I read about radon in some granite so I looked for alternatives.

Thanks to everyone, I am having a white kitchen in my new home, but in the one I have now I have had black granite for 25 years and am so sick of the fingerprints on the glossy finish I could scream. I do love black so it sounds like soapstone might be for me. My husband is messy when he cooks so marble is out and I can't find a quartzite I love and do not like the engineered counters.

Then you will probably like the soapstone to be oiled. Not oiled it will show water rings and oily spots from cooking / touching with your hands. The oiled will bring out the rich black tone that you like. I think it’s a gorgeous counter. It is very expensive though so just FYI when budgeting. Good luck!

If you go with soapstone, please post pictures so we can drool! Everyone, have a wonderful holiday!

My kitchen will have white cabinets and a turquoise stove Lachanche and these counter stools

I am so excited and I think it will be oiled soapstone

This will be my last home as I have been in my current for 35 years. i'm 72 and you can't take it with you

"Joseph can you give some insight about what causes people to regret soapstone?"

In nearly every countertop selection post you'll hear the word "love". "I fell in love with a slab of blah-blah..." It turns out that just like that biker in the bar with no job, you can't change the nature of your pick, no matter how strong your love. So have your fantasy fling with your bad boy, but you'd better marry the accountant with the bow tie in the diner across the street from the bar.

I have green soapstone from India. I love the look when it is waxed, but gradually have not taken the time to do it. I think it has been a year since we last waxed it. I have never seen a water mark on it - it is impervious to anything I have spilled on it. Even oily marks quickly disappear (part of the reason we quit waxing it; the wax disappeared within a day or two). Yes, there are a few scratches, but I don't really notice them. We love it.

I do not have it, but I really wanted it. We ended up not being able to afford it nor find a slab I liked locally and I went with steel grey leathered granite instead.
Before we remodeled our kitchen I stayed the better part of a week at an Airbnb and they had soapstone in their kitchen. (I didn't rent the Airbnb for that reason, it was just a happy coincidence) I asked them a lot of questions about their experience with it. They had used mineral oil in theirs at first, but hadn't oiled it for about a year by the time I stayed with them. It was a beautiful, even, black color with lovely veining. She showed me a couple of small chips where she had dropped heavy things on it before... I wouldn't have noticed them if she hadn't pointed them out. You don't really SEE them, but you can feel them. They're not so bad/deep that food gets stuck in them though so I didn't see them as a problem.
I loved that it just felt soft... nice to run your hands across. That's a feeling I was able to get with my leathered granite. But the soapstone was warm. It retained ambient heat nicely, so when you lean your hands or forearms on it you don't feel chilly. I loved that, it's not something I have with my leathered granite, that feels cold. I suspected that I probably wouldn't want to roll chilled dough out on a soapstone counter, but that was probably the only con I could think of.
I thought it was really beautiful and I enjoyed preparing my food in that kitchen during my Airbnb stay. I feel like my leathered steel grey granite gives me a similar look and a "close enough" experience to the soapstone and I'm very happy with it... but I do still love soapstone. (Fwiw, I have similar chips in my granite... on the edges though since we didn't do rounded edges, from my cast iron cookware hitting it... my kids' fault! Sigh. It's repairable though and I've had some repaired and you can't really see the repairs.)

There is no "con" . .......unless you make the natural and organic properties of the material INTO a con.

It is a talc product, from the earth. It will withstand any amount of heat. You can sand away a ding, a scratch, anything, with a lowly hunk of sandpaper. You can seal with ordinary mineral oil at any time, which will enhance and darken the material, or use an un -enhanced seal, which will retain the tone of your selection.

You wash it with soap and water. It will outlast you. : ) Frogs have been dissected on it, food chopped on it, it's been in laboratories with Bunsen burners....longer than anyone can remember.

I can't come up with a con

http://granitegrannies.com/soapstone-kitchen-fireplace-bathroom/

I really like our Green Mountain soapstone finished with 80 grit sandpaper. I’m not sure I’d like other types, especially not finished the same way.

" So have your fantasy fling with your bad boy, but you'd better marry the accountant with the bow tie in the diner across the street from the bar."

I guess what I was getting at and probably Claire Pope too was: what are the reasons why soapstone would be considered a "bad boy" rather than the accountant? It seems dependable, long lasting, a strong committment, staying power to last a few lifetimes...

Jan's answer was more what I think my perspective would be, but never having lived with it outside of a science lab I just don't know.

I guess like everything else, it's all subjective. And for me it is all fantasy at the moment :-)

I doubt your kitchen takes the abuse of a science lab. : ) You either like and accept wrinkles in your linen shirt, or you buy polyester. One will feel cool and crisp....maybe a tad messy at days end. The other will be wrinkle free as it hides the beads of sweat rolling down your back and down your chin. Or you buy no iron cotton and settle for the in between. All things.... have a pro and a con...even an in between lol

Beautiful kitchen, westmanmarine! What kind of cabinets do you have?

Thank you, Diana. The cabinets were made by a local (Tacoma, WA) cabinet maker and are mahogany.

Gorgeous--you have terrific taste.

Beautiful! BTW.... That cake looks yummy.............: )!

Such a beautiful kitchen, the slaps I have chosen look an awful lot like your. Did you use the bees wax with mineral oil? My slabs all three match beautifully

I have Original PA on my 10x5 island and after 6 years I still love it. This type of soapstone is actually quite hard and we don;t have any chips or scratches on the stone. I waxed it years ago and it's still nice and black.

At the risk of asking a dumb question...when you oil or wax your countertops...how long does it take for that to "soak" in? Our new kitchen island will get use not only for food production but homework, serve as a fabric cutting table, crafts, paints, etc. Will the oil or wax prohibit us from using our island for these other purposes?

How many ways can we say indestructible..............?

https://www.marbleandgranite.com/blog/2016/february-2016/soapstone-how-can-a-stone-so-soft-be-so-durable

Ranch Mom, you and your family can do anything you want on the soapstone. You don't wait for the oil to soak in - it won't ever soak in. Instead, it literally sits on top of the stone because the stone is impervious to anything - nothing will soak into it. When you oil the soapstone, you must wipe the surface until no oil comes back up on your rag (or paper towel). I used to use paper towels and kept changing paper towels and wiping until nothing came up on it. Once you do that, you won't need to re-oil for a very long time.

As for waxing the surface, I cannot really comment except to say that I don't recommend it. In my opinion, oiling it is much easier. I had soapstone counters in a kitchen of a former house. When I get around to remodeling my existing kitchen, soapstone will be going back in.

I'm in the LOVE camp! Over 3 years and no regrets for my bad boy.

FYI - I don't think that counter absorbs anything - it eventually just evaporates.

Jane Gray I also installed Alberene Soapstone also called Churchill Reserve!

My kitchen is still a work in progress so pictures aren't great...but I just LOVE them. I wanted US soapstone and it took my awhile to locate a slab I could buy. Polycor bought the quarry. After speaking with them I was able to locate my slab an hour away. One picture is one side natural the other side wet (which is what waxed/oiled would look like), and the other picture is the drainboard we put in. I'll show more once the kitchen is done!

I used this wax on them.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007RO1XXU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It was likely more work than oil, but I had heard good things about it. You apply the wax and leave it on for about 15 minutes and then wipe it clean. I did this twice when counters were installed and they still look great 9 months later. They are dark and rich in color, but not shiny (I prefer more of a matte look, than shiny). Like Jane Gray mentioned, anything that you apply will not be absorbed ... you just have to wipe it clean.

Macswim, I can't wait to see the finished project! I love your drainboard. I didn't have one in my old kitchen but I did have a custom soapstone deep single-bowl sink. Loved every bit of it and am looking forward to having it again one day.

I’m in the love camp. I’ve had my anasticia soapstone kitchen countertops for a few years. Started as a blue gray and quickly (6 months) turning dark/black. I rarely oil them, but when I have, it’s like dressing them up. Have never had a water ring. So so happy with it.