When I sanded down the soapstone counters in my current kitchen I tried to keep them unoiled/undarkened prior to using enhancing sealant on them. Our soapstone is a harder variety that is medium gray unoiled with moderate veining that becomes dark gray with greenish hints when darkened. The oil spots stood out drastically and were more difficult to remove than I cared to have to do constantly, it took more aggressive scrubbing than typical counter cleaning. This picture shows the ss unoiled and a few small spots of oil/crude below the vase. Anything with even a hint of oil left spots like this, usually bigger.

Some varieties of soapstone allow oil spots to blend in better than others. @darbuka has a variety that has a lot of veining and has written frequently about not oiling their ss and enjoying the patina. It is a good idea to get a sample and see how it looks when you set an oily chip down or just handle it a lot and then how much effort it takes to remove the spots.

I have had unoiled PA original soapstone for 3 weeks. So far, I have used Windex (the kind with vinegar). It dries in 2 minutes and works well. I have also used a drop of dishwashing liquid with water which works, as well. The stone dries quickly and I like seeing the color and veining when it's wet. It adds enjoyment to the wiping down process.

@laurie omg! Beautiful !! That’s what my slab looks like I think. Do you mind posting a picture of the whole thing? What kind of edge did you get ? I want ogee but people say that may lead to more chipping ?

@ sm is yours pa / stormy black as well? So pretty . The spots don’t look bad to me at all. I love the look of unoiled!

@ctandjt123 Those spots do not look that bad, I did not take any pics of the counters when they had been used to cook and not cleaned. The spots in the pic above were just random crude, after cooking the counters had streaks and marks all over that made them just look dirty. Look at the soapstone floors in this thread, the pics are at the end of the thread, that is the look that my counters had: <Soapstone floors..... THREAD>

I am not sure what variety our counters are, the previous owners had them installed. We had Old Dominion from Alberene in our last house so I had already lived with ss prior to these. The current counters were highly polished when we bought the house and I sanded them down by hand. The resulting finish was extremely matte, @Laurie s counters do not look quite as matte as our finish was which may have something to do with how oil marks appear and how easily they can be removed, I am not sure.

Here is a pic of the green in ours:

@laurie OHMYGOSH. Those countertops are my dream and I hope mine look half as good as yours. That’s exactly my vision and hope for mine. Thank you so much for sharing- amazing amazing

Laurie -- beautiful combination of cabinets and counters, looks terrific!

@ Laurie you had a 3 cm slab correct ? And that’s a regular edge, not mitered / laminated ?

ctandjt123 and pork chop - thanks for the kind comments : )

Yes, our slab/countertop was/is 3cm with no lamination to the edge. If I understand your question correctly...no pieces were added on to our counter edge to build it thicker.

@Laurie - beautiful countertops and cabinets. Would love to see more photos of your kitchen! What type of wood + color of stain was used for your cabinets? So many people use rift sawn white oak (my original plan from four years ago) - but I'm looking at other options also.

Please post some more photos!!

I have soapstone countertops and have never oiled or waxed them in the three plus since they were installed. I find them very easy to clean with a damp cloth and a little Dawn dish detergent. I love them, and I’d absolutely get soapstone again. I’d be sure to have them installed by a someone very familiar with soapstone, like M. Texiera, so they have the lovely silky finish.

@chinacatpeekin I would have loved m texiera to install and fabricate but they unfortunately only install slabs purchased at their shops and I found a great deal at a different slab yard so will have to find a different soapstone fabricator in the Bay Area. Could you post pictures of your soapstone? I’m hoping to see how they wear unoiled with just Minimal maintenance. Thank u!

I am pretty low maintenance. I wipe daily just with a dishcloth, then once in a while do a good scrubdown with dish detergent. Usually it takes a few passes to actually clean up the spots and patina. We do get flecks of oil, coffee rings and so forth, in day to day life, but I'm not too particular (about this anyway) and am ok with them showing until the next time I wash the counters. I love soapstone.

Above new, today current patina around sink

@rebasheba when you say scrub down with dish detergent what does that mean exactly ? Little dawn with water and scrub the counters and wipe down with a clean washcloth so the water ?

dani_m08 - Thank You. The cabinets are Maple wood with a stain called Biscotti. They are made by a company called Schuler (custom cabs purchased at Lowe's). Schuler also goes by the company names Medallion or Yorktown.

Exactly, I get one really sudsy dishcloth and scrub, and then follow that with another one with just water. Most of the time I do two rounds of that.