Carved Bud Vase

Spring is just around the corner for us here in Canada and we are looking forward to spring blooms and green grass. To help brighten up the home I decided to carve a couple of bud vases out of soapstone. This Instructable will go over the basics of soft stone carving and I hope that your projects will turn out as nicely as this one did.

The best thing about this project is that you don't need a whole lot of specialty tools. I used a drill press to drill the hole in the stone, but a regular drill will do the job just as well. As far as rasps and files go, I only used two different ones on this project, and could have gotten away with only the rasp.

• Hand saw or Hacksaw
• Drill and drill bit
• Half round rasps and/or files
• Sandpaper - assorted grit - Find the higher grit paper in the Automotive Department
• Soapstone

I picked up my soapstone from local soapstone counter top company for free. I went in and asked what they did with their soapstone cut-offs and offered to pay if I could rummage through their scrap heap. I picked out a small box worth and they let me have it for nothing.

There are number of different types of soapstone, some fairly soft and some quite hard. For this Instructable I choose a soft green stone, try scratching it with your fingernail to see how soft it is. Soft stone is more easily worked and is excellent to start with, however it also scratches quite easily so you need to be careful when working with it in the final stages and when displaying your finished product.

I took one of the scrap pieces I had and using a normal hand saw, cut out a rectangular cube shape. Now is a good time to talk about safety equipment. A mask is essential (who doesn't have one or more of them hanging around?) you don't want the dust in your lungs and nasal passages. Also, some soapstone may contain asbestos, although I don't think it is common or even readily available anymore. You may want to ask your supplier about this before you buy your stone.

Now is the time to decide on a general shape for your vase, is it going to be square, round, oval, free form, you decide. I usually start with a general idea of the shape but it can change as the spirit moves me.

The first set is to drill the hole in the block for the flower stem to sit in. I use a large twist bit and then a modified spade bit to make the hole larger. (the third bit in the picture is just for comparison) Take it slow and easy, dumping out any build-up of stone dust as you go. Drill too quickly and you risk breaking the stone.

There are two reasons to drill the hole first.

1. If the stone breaks when drilling you haven't lost much time.
2. The stone is stronger with the thicker walls that you have before shaping the vase.

Once the hole is drilled, it is time to start shaping with the rasp. A rasp is a coarse file often used for shaping wood but since soapstone is soft, it work well to shape this project.

To make sure the bottom is flat, put a piece of coarse sandpaper on a flat surface and gently smooth the base of the vase.

Use a rasp to define the general shape of the piece. Remember that you can always take more off, but it is impossible to put more on. Sometimes I will get to the sanding step, look at the piece and decide it needs more flair. I bring out the rasp, reshape and move on.

You can see in the pictures that the sides are pretty rough, now is the time to switch to a file (or sandpaper if you don't have a file) for the next step in smoothing out the stone.

Pro-Tip - use a wire brush to clean out the teeth in the rasp and file. As you can see by comparing the pictures, the file does smooth things down, but it is far from being finished.

This step can be the most time consuming step. The longer you spend sanding, the nicer the overall final finish. I suggest getting out some music, maybe a beverage and move outside into the sun.

Sanding consists of moving from a lower grit paper to a high grit until you end up with a smoothly finished piece. I usually run through 220 - 400 - 600 - 1000 - 2000.

Before moving up to the next level of sandpaper, make sure you have removed all of the scratches from the previous level. I will change direction in sanding to make it easier to tell if there are still scratches or gouges from the previous level. As you can see in the two magnified photos, I had sanded left to right with the 220 grit and then switched to top to bottom for the 400 grit. I need to keep sanding until that horizontal line has disappeared.

The stone I used is quite soft and easily scratched. Make sure you keep your sandpaper fairly clean as a buildup of stone dust can create deep grooves that need to be sanded out. If you see any scratches, go down to a lower grit to remove them and then work your way back up again.

The final step, the 2000 grit is a wet sand, constantly dipping the sandpaper in water as I sand. This helps ensure that any grit that comes off of the stone gets washed away instead of scratching the final finish.

I looks pretty good after a wet sand, but sometimes you just want to make it stand out a little bit more. For that I use a polishing compound and then a wax. This really helps bring out the shine and bring out the grain in the stone.

The taped up photo is to ensure the hole doesn't leak water. Sometimes natural stone has small cracks in it that will let the water seep out. I tape up the stone and then spray the hole with a couple of coats of clear enamel spray paint.

In the past I have sometimes skipped the waxing part and sprayed the piece with clear gloss enamel, a couple of coats really gives a deep shine, but it can be hard to prevent the paint from running and leaving sag marks.

Now it the time to enjoy. Add some water, find some flowers and bring spring into your home.

I hope you have enjoyed the Instructable as much as I have enjoyed making it. Now that you have your first one, try different shapes, different stone, different ideas.