[Sca-cooks] soapstone

[Mark.S Harris]

niccolo difrancesco asked:
> <<<I had the same thought when I read this. I use soapstone for the
> molds I carve to cast pewter. It does come in different hardnesses
> though. Some I've gotten that is surplus from counter tops, is quite
> hard and you need a steel tool to scratch it. Other soapstone, the
> stuff I prefer, is soft enough that I can scratch it with my fingernail.>>>=
> >>
>
> Stefan,
>
> Where do you get your carving stone?  I am having a hard time finding soaps=
> tone of the right softness.  what I find will do, but I have hard time gett=
> ing deatil do to crystal sizes and hardness . . . . though my molds are nig=
> h inviceable :o)

Until recently I'd been buying my stone locally because I was afraid
of buying the stone sight unseen. However, I am much more pleased with
the stone I got from my new source and even with the extra shipping
cost, it still cost me less than I was paying locally. The problem
with the shipping is that it cost me almost as much as the stone.

Another irony is that my stone comes out of Canada, so the stuff I
brought to Pennsic this last year traveled from Canada to Texas and
then back north to Pennsylvania.

There are some sources given in this file in the CRAFTS section of
a certain large set of files :-)
soapstone-msg      (6K)  9/ 8/99    Use of Soapstone in period. Modern
sources.