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Steatite (Soapstone) Quarrying & Quarry Blanks

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  • Steatite (Soapstone) Quarrying & Quarry Blanks

    Steatite (Soapstone) Quarrying & Quarry Blanks

    Moderator Note: this thread was first posted in 2013 but failed to transfer across to the new forum when the software was updated, and so has been re-created manually.

    Posted by [CMD]

    Here's an old photo of the Ochee Springs Soapstone Quarry in Johnston, Rhode Island:
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    Protected, and on the National Register, you can still see bowl blanks attached to the outcrop:
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    Here's a complete blank, found in a field a few miles from a different soapstone quarry site. The first photo is the side attached to the outcrop, last 2 photos are the side that presented itself to the native who dislodged it. Not a bad quality soapstone, one wonders why some things are discarded before finishing.
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    Posted by [CMD]
    Another old photo of a soapstone outcrop at Ochee Springs.
    Click image for larger version

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    I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

  • #2
    Posted by [CliffJ]
    Cool pics. Is that not a lug handle in pic #2? If so, that is probably an end part of a big thick bowl!


    Posted by [CMD]
    CliffJ wrote:
    Cool pics. Is that not a lug handle in pic #2? If so, that is probably an end part of a big thick bowl!

    Cliff, if you mean the little piece sticking up in the middle front of the 2nd pic, I don't think it's a lug, but just a piece left on when the blank was pried loosed from the outcrop wall. I've always wondered if the thick end, as seen to the left in the 2nd pic might have been a lug end. It's the far end in pic 3 and the left side in pic 4. A little more bulbous there, didn't really take photos to feature it, but I thought that's where a lug might have been fashioned and a shallow small bowl or cup the intent. Funny thing, found it my first day in that field, and never a piece in that field since.


    Posted by [gregszybala]
    Thanks Charlie! Enjoy threads like this. Are there larger outcrops of soapstone out East? I have seen whole kitchen counter tops and sinks made of soapstone. Would have to be a huge quarry.


    Posted by [CMD]
    gregszybala wrote:
    Thanks Charlie! Enjoy threads like this. Are there larger outcrops of soapstone out East? I have seen whole kitchen counter tops and sinks made of soapstone. Would have to be a huge quarry.

    Well, there were an abundance of prehistoric quarries in New England. Don't think we have any commercial soapstone quarries though. Actually, don't know where the commercial quantity is quarried. I think California has a lot as well. Thanks, Greg!


    Posted by [CMD]
    A very large steatite kettle and two smaller bowls. These were excavated at the Transitional Archaic-Contact Era West Ferry Site, on Conanicut Island, Narragansett Bay, Jamestown, RI. Transitional Archaic in age. The artifacts are part of an exhibit documenting the West Ferry site at the Jamestown Public Library, which was built at the site location.
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    I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

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