WORKING STONE

[PaulDoug]

Missed my lathe while I was sipping wine at the ocean so I got busy this morning and started on my shaving set. This is what I have done so far on the soap holder. This is Soapstone. I have to make a jam chuck now so I can work on the bottom. I have the Knot to make the brush and the razor blank. I'm a little concerned how well the Knot will stay epoxied in the brush handle. I don't know if epoxy and soapstone work well together.

Not a fancy turn, but I'm new at this stone stuff so I'm going simple.

 

[ldb2000]

Looks great Paul . Should be an awesome set when you are done . The epoxy will work fine with the stone .

 

[bitshird]

Neat soap holder Paul! I sure will be looking forward to seeing the set.

 

[Jgrden]

Neat soap holder Paul! I sure will be looking forward to seeing the set.

Me too. I hesitate doing things that are a little different, but get over that feeling very quickly - unless it is too costly to repair. What's my point - I dunno.

 

[fernhills]

Hi, Very interested in how it all works out for you. Also on how the soapstone turns.
I have been experimenting on how wood holds up on various shaving tools with out a finish for the last six months

 

[cozee]

That looks sweet! I recently was given a nice slab of soap stone about 1 1¼" thick and am curious as to how you went about turning your soap holder.

 

[THarvey]

Missed my lathe while I was sipping wine at the ocean so I got busy this morning and started on my shaving set. This is what I have done so far on the soap holder. This is Soapstone. I have to make a jam chuck now so I can work on the bottom. I have the Knot to make the brush and the razor blank. I'm a little concerned how well the Knot will stay epoxied in the brush handle. I don't know if epoxy and soapstone work well together.
Not a fancy turn, but I'm new at this stone stuff so I'm going simple.

Paul,

Great looking soap cup.

Put some thin CA in your soap stone, let it soak in a dry where you will be epoxing the knot. That will help fill some of the porousness of the stone, so it does not pull the moisture out of your epoxy too fast.

 

[PaulDoug]

Paul,

Great looking soap cup.

Put some thin CA in your soap stone, let it soak in a dry where you will be epoxing the knot. That will help fill some of the porousness of the stone, so it does not pull the moisture out of your epoxy too fast.

Thanks for the input, I'll do that.

 

[lazyguy]

Great work Paul. That really looks nice. But your post has put me in a quandary. I had settled on making a shaving brush handle of wood, now a stone one appeals to me. What to do what to do. Both I guess

 

[PaulDoug]

One thing I've found about working with soapstone. It is very difficult to get a real good shinny finish on it. I micro meshed this cup through 12k and still had a, not dull but I'd say saten finish. Went through it twice. To make it shine I used mineral oil. It even say on the internet to use mineral oil on soapstone. I want to try micro meshing it using mineral oil instead of water, but I don't want to ruin my MM.

 

[Craftdiggity]

Paul,

You won't get soapstone to gloss up the way marble or granite does. It just isn't hard enough. You've probably got it as good as it's going to get as far as a gloss goes unless to decide to put some kind of a finish on it.