Brush Stand Done

I got tired of not having a stand for my brush, so I figured I'd see what I could come up with. Im absolutely in love with it.

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I went and bought a chunk of soapstone and got to carving. It fits my brush beautifully and I happen to think it looks rather elegant and regal. Im totally happy with it.

That's a beautiful piece of work!

Soapstone is great stuff to work with, isn't it? I Just ordered a 35 lb chunk of it and can't wait until it arrives. It has been a little while since I've been able to play with some. :)

That is fantastic,what sort of tools do you use the carve it

Thanks!

Im jealous cangooner! I would love a huge chunk of soapstone to mess around with. I have only been able to find small pieces like the one I used to make this. I can also get alabaster in the same size for about the same price. I may try some of that next to see how well it works for carving.

Pixelfixed, I just used a dremel with a couple sanding drums to remove the bulk of the material and get the rough shape done. From there it was just a couple of various hand rasps and files to further refine the shape then several sheets of sandpaper. This stuff is really soft, but pretty strong which makes it great for carving like this. From start to finish it only took me about 3 hours to make. I've been told that you can even carve this stuff with a pocket knife.

And if you notice, it also doubles as a razor stand too for my DE. The little groove in the top works perfectly for resting my Merkur in.

Very nice! Beautiful work.

Ha ha - I know the feeling! I kept checking stores locally to get some soapstone, but finally broke down and ordered it from here:

Sculpture Supply Canada - Carving Stones

I'm sure it wouldn't make any sense to ship it from Toronto to Texas, but maybe there's a similar supplier closer to home for you.

I like your razor groove too!

Pixelfixed: soapstone can vary quite a bit in hardness/brittleness, but it can usually be worked with the same tools that one would normally use on wood. For my razor and brush stands I used a dremel the same as TexasShaver, carving knives and chisels, rasps, sandpaper, micromesh, and a drill press. :) One thing to watch out for are the harder inclusions that can appear from time to time (again varying quite a bit between different soapstones) which can do a number on a cutting edge and/or pop out, ruining your nice smooth surface.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/misce...use-stone.html

It's great stuff to work with!

thats beautiful work. where did you buy the stone?

Hobby Lobby. For a piece big enough to make that was about $10.

That looks great.

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.

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

Quote:

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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.

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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.