Thread: Brush Stand Done

Honestly, I dont know how this stuff could get a bad review. It was a really nice piece and worked very easily. Once sanded and polished I think the grain of the stone came out beautifully.

That really looks great, the soap stone and shape are beautiful.

Charlie

Originally Posted by nt4sell

i looked at hobby lobby before online and the only piece that big got bad reviews...well it only had one review and it was bad. but they may have just got a bad piece. dick blick has bigger pieces but they are the light sea mist green.

Soapstone has naturally occurring fault lines that can very, very easily cause a piece to crack. I haven't seen the negative review you mentioned, but if had to do with the piece cracking, that could be a reason. If you do get some soapstone, before you start carving, take a *good* look at it to see where the fault lines run. If you can, incorporate them into your design. If you can't, epoxy works well on soapstone.

that was it exactly they said it broke into three pieces

Well I havent had any issues of mine cracking or shattering into pieces. Although knowing that you epoxy works well on soapstone, I may have to see about using that to seal it, cause oiling it every few days to keep the grain looking good sucks!

ive read everytime you oil it that color lasts longer and after a couple months its pretty permanent

You can also try melting beeswax for a finish

EDIT: +1 to the advice above about the oil lasting longer with additional application. Also, I would be very hesitant to finish stone with epoxy. That would turn a beautiful piece of stone that has all the tactile characteristics of stone into a plastic-coated thing that kinda looks stone-y.

*However* it is yours, so do whatever the heck you want to do with it! After all, yours is the only opinion of it that counts. But don't give up on oil just yet.

Nice work on the stand.

Well I dont have any beeswax on hand, but I read somewhere that carnuba car wax also does a good job at giving a good luster for a while. I may try that before going back to oil and see how well it does.