| Perhaps you are concerned about this winter and | | | | related, soapstone has an attractive grained |
| facing the possibility of heating oil priced at $5 - | | | | appearance. It is softer than marble, and easily |
| $6 a gallon or more. | | | | worked into a wide variety of shapes; however it |
| Unfortunately, there is little to be done about | | | | is durable and heat resistant, while at the same |
| greedy speculators and oil companies or the | | | | time is also an excellent conductor of heat. This is |
| incompetent, uncaring government bodies that | | | | why tribal hunter/gathering societies throughout |
| enable them. However, there are alternatives, one | | | | the world have used soapstone for cookware and |
| being the wood stove. A soapstone woodstove is | | | | heating applications for thousands of years. |
| an especially practical choice; this unique form of | | | | The material from which a soapstone woodstove |
| rock has been used for heating and cooking for | | | | is made is quarried from mineral deposits that |
| several thousand years throughout the world. A | | | | date back nearly half a billion years, long before |
| soapstone woodstove is at once traditional and | | | | even the dinosaurs appeared on Earth. This |
| contemporary; whether your home is Early | | | | remarkable stone has been used by Native |
| American, Victorian, Craftsman, Mission Style, Art | | | | Americans living in the eastern woodlands and far |
| Deco or contemporary, you'll find that a | | | | north as well as early European setters for a |
| soapstone woodstove is at home with virtually all | | | | range of purposes, including cooking and carrying |
| of them. | | | | water. In fact, many old homes have soapstone |
| Soapstone is a type of metamorphic, or "fire" | | | | surfaces that have been in daily use since the |
| rock. Geologists call it this because such rock | | | | nineteenth century. |
| literally "morphs," or changes from one kind of | | | | A soapstone woodstove, if properly cared for, will |
| rock to another under pressures and heat deep | | | | serve your comfort needs throughout your |
| beneath the Earth's crust. Metamorphic rock | | | | lifetime as well as those of your children, |
| includes marble, quartz, diamond and soapstone. | | | | grandchildren and great-grandchildren. One of the |
| A soapstone woodstove is made from a type of | | | | secrets of a soapstone woodstove's durability is |
| rock that is soft and slick to the touch, similar to | | | | the fact that soapstone itself is completely |
| dry bar of soap (hence its name). Much like | | | | non-reactive. Should you spill something on a |
| marble, to which it is chemically and geologically | | | | soapstone surface, cleanup is a simple matter. |