[kelly]

I have 5 tiles, one each of:

Zag Blue granite
Rojo Onyx
Rainforest Green Limestone
Rainforest Brown Limestone
Flash Blue Granite

I think I should add a marble and a soapstone- anyone have a stone they'd like tested not covered here?

I propose to subject each tile to some clear and present dangers, and would like your help IKEAFANS in determing the caustic contestants...and in setting up the experiment.

I think I should apply a sealer to each stone, to ensure that they are all indeed sealed, and appropriately. Archie- do you have ideas on which would be appropriate for the different stones??

Then, I should place a grid over each stone to ID where it was exposed to various treatments. Heat will be the first test, applied to the center of each tile- we will apply substances thereafter.

Tests:

Heat (how hot?)
cutting
Lemon
tomatoes
red wine
water-the ultimate solvent
salt

What else??

[DesignDiva]

Heat...I'd say 450 degrees, you might take a pan that hot out of the oven.

Ammonia, bleach, dishwasher detergent, soy sauce, coffee, an abrasive cleaner and a scrubby pad would all be good torture tests too.

I'd suggest using different areas of the tile, though, because otherwise you'll have compounded environments.

[kelly]

Absolutely- that's what I wanted to do with the grid- one little area for each torture test, except for the heat and the cutting....

Any thoughts on the sealers?

[GardenOfDarwin]

I can only speak to soapstone -- it doesn't need a sealer (although you could oil it to see what it would look like oiled) and you don't need to bother with heat -- it's used as labaratory countertops. It can take the heat. We routinely use it as both a trivet and to defrost meat.

Anyway, to your list you might add blueberries and dare I say it? Blood...:shock:. C'mere kiddies...mommy has to do another leetle esperiment. S'ok...c'mere...

Susan

[GardenOfDarwin]

Oh, I might add, though...all soapstones are different. We got ours through Vermont Soapstone and although we purchased all the tiles at the same time, we had some that were REALLY black and REALLY hard, and some that were the expected charcoal with veins and one that we named Mr. Green because, well...you can figure that out. He's under a cabinet where noone can see him.

So, in short...test soapstone if you think you may get it, but don't base your decision on one soapstone only to get another one. Check around.

Susan

[kelly]

Good advice!

The children have already experienced mama wanting just a little bit of their blood when we did the home blood typing experiment a couple of months ago. I kept asking my doctor what the children's blood types were, and they didn't have it on file...its so stinking easy to do, so I just got kits online and they were cheaper than a co-pay!

DH had to prick them, tho. Not mama.

[Tigratrus]

As a neat little side experiment you might want to test the samples for surface tension and specific heat. We've found that soapstone is an EXCELLENT heat sink, it works superbly well for thawing frozen foods and the surface tension thing tends to keep liquids ON the soapstone rather than spilling off, VERY important when someone cracks a bunch of eggs and leaves a pool on the counter... ask me how I know ...

And Ummm... I'm gonna be keeping an eye on the kids if Susan comes home with a lancet from the pharmacy mumbling something about establishing a baseline.

James

[kelly]

OK, I only pretend to be scientific.

So, soapstone is a heat-sink, which means that it absorbs heat and dissapates it, yes? So when you defrost things, do you heat the stone first? Can you stop laughing at me long enough to just answer?????

And surface tension- what type of test- how long my blood will pool on it?

What would be a good blood pooling timing?

[DesignDiva]

Hey Tig and Susan, did you know that liberally sprinkling salt or sugar on spilled eggs will coagulate them to the point where you can scoop them up with a dustpan? Just cover the spillage with it, wait a couple minutes and they'll turn into rubbery chunks.

And kelly, you don't have to heat the soapstone first.

And I don't think blood pooling is really something you'll need to test...if you have blood pools on your counter, I don't think the pooling time will be your biggest problem, KWIM?

[GardenOfDarwin]

I was thinking more like blood spatters, not pools. Either way, grotesque.

And no...I didn't know about the egg thing, so thanks for the tip! As an aside, when I worked in Group Home settings we had some stuff that you could sprinkle on spills that would essentially do the same thing. If you look around in any big box store, you'll see they have something similar on posts around the store. One of the folks who I worked with always called it Puke-Suck. Now I can't walk through a big box store without thinking about Rebecca and Puke-Suck.

Susan