Mabsy, we took our sample slab when we went to lay the template. They divided it into 4 sections, and honed one to 80 grit, one to 100 grit, one to 200 and one to 240, so we could see the difference. The higher they polished it, the more I could see the undulations of the quartz areas vs the talc areas. At a lower grit, the whole surface was more even. We decided that the 80 grit finish was best for our soapstone. Hope this helps.

buehl: we are trying to salvage a piece about 30 x 36 or at least 30 x 30. As far as we can tell, the only way to get a piece that big is with the current layout. Well, we could turn one half of the sink 90 degrees, but I think that might look bad b/c of the way the lines in the stone are moving. We can easily switch that upper rectangle with the sink piece under it (and solve the blotch problem), but the resulting square (currently shown by the masked off area) is smaller. We could just do something like butcher block by the stove (as was suggested above), but I really wanted soapstone by the stove for hot pans. Also, out kitchen is so small, I kind of wanted to stick with one type of surface throughout. arlosmom: Hee! Lordy, the flying dishwasher! I don't miss that horrid thing one bit. And my beloved pinkie is working much better in the garage! I think we are just going to leave it as it is. I was going to head back with the Bee's Oil, but it is hard for me to go there with my 2 little boys (who are pretty hyper!). And even if "the blotch" still showed through the oil, that would leave me with switching the 2 pieces--which husband doesn't want to do. And he'd never, in a trillion years, agree to pay "transportation costs" to exchange the slab. Can you tell I'm getting tired of this kitchen battle? I'm waving the white flag in every direction! Also, I think TheHusband is feeling very discouraged that I'm complaining about this. He agreed to splurge on the soapstone, thinking I'd be the happiest girl in the world. And here I am, fussing about it. Hoffman: thank you for pointing that out! Our slab isn't wide enough to put those pieces together, but they do seem to be on equally quiet areas. Your seam is fantastic! I just love your stone in general! Which one is it? Was it really light gray before oiling, and how often do you oil it? :-) Francy

Thanks ricklish. We're still loving it. I've only done two full oilings so far, about 2 weeks apart. The 2nd one is 2 weeks old now too, come to think of it. It has settled in to a nice balance of dark and light. When freshly oiled a lot of the stone's interesting details get lost. A week or more later it looks better. It'll probably be another week before I do it again, more out of convenience than because it's gone too light. I found bee's oil too difficult to be worth the effort and just use a light butcher's block mineral oil from Williams-Sonoma. The heavy drug store stuff was kinda tough to spread around too but may have more holding power. So far we have no problems with scratches and have pretty much stopped worrying about it. No suprises or regrets! I hope your install went well, we were away on vacation so I'm just now getting back to GW. - D

I have found that sanding the chopped/scratched spot will allow it to take oil again. I use a 220 grit paper as per my supplier but M Tex may have told you differently. If that doesn't work, I use a dark grey sharpie in the ding. It blends perfectly after re-oiling.