A Heads Up on Treating Soapstone With Mineral Oil

[Nick Mystic]

I've got an older Woodstock Classic woodstove in the lower level of my house. I've read a few posts where people talk about "conditioning/cleaning" their soapstone stoves with mineral oil. I had never done this in the ten years we've been in our home, so I decided to do it before I started burning this year. I did some reading and followed the recommended process. Basically, you just rub the mineral oil on the soapstone, leave it for a time, then wipe it off with a clean cloth and do a bit of buffing.

I did this a couple of days ago thinking I wouldn't be burning our first fire for a few more days. However, the house has been getting cooler every day and rain is predicted for tomorrow and then highs only in the 60s with lows in the 40s all next week. Since the house had gotten down to 67 inside, I decided to go ahead and light a fire in the Woodstock Classic tonight. Since it wasn't very cold I didn't load up the stove, just a few three inch splits and some kindling. I was surprised at how much odor the stove put off as it heated up. The top of the stove hit 500 F and there was a small amount of visible smoke coming off it as the mineral oil evaporated.

Eventually, the smell got so bad I had to open some windows upstairs and run our attic fan for about 15 minutes to pull out the smell. None of the articles I read gave any warning about this happening, so I thought I would make this post to alert other soapstone stove owners in case they decide to do a mineral oil treatment.

 

[Tenn Dave]

I've got an older Woodstock Classic woodstove in the lower level of my house. I've read a few posts where people talk about "conditioning/cleaning" their soapstone stoves with mineral oil. I had never done this in the ten years we've been in our home, so I decided to do it before I started burning this year. I did some reading and followed the recommended process. Basically, you just rub the mineral oil on the soapstone, leave it for a time, then wipe it off with a clean cloth and do a bit of buffing.

I did this a couple of days ago thinking I wouldn't be burning our first fire for a few more days. However, the house has been getting cooler every day and rain is predicted for tomorrow and then highs only in the 60s with lows in the 40s all next week. Since the house had gotten down to 67 inside, I decided to go ahead and light a fire in the Woodstock Classic tonight. Since it wasn't very cold I didn't load up the stove, just a few three inch splits and some kindling. I was surprised at how much odor the stove put off as it heated up. The top of the stove hit 500 F and there was a small amount of visible smoke coming off it as the mineral oil evaporated.

Eventually, the smell got so bad I had to open some windows upstairs and run our attic fan for about 15 minutes to pull out the smell. None of the articles I read gave any warning about this happening, so I thought I would make this post to alert other soapstone stove owners in case they decide to do a mineral oil treatment.

Thanks for sharing. I knew they did the oil treatment for counter tops, but I had never heard it being done for stoves.

 

[rideau]

I suspect treating soapstone is one of those things that, once done, must be maintained.

Untreated soapstone is very low maintenance, has character, and lasts forever unless you break it.

 

[Todd]

Does Woodstock recommend this?

 

[rideau]

No

 

[Nick Mystic]

I used some #0000 steel wool this morning to go over all the soapstone to finish removing any mineral oil residue that might not have burned off last night, which didn't appear to be much since the stone had reverted back to its lighter shade. This afternoon I built another small fire in the stove since it's been a cool rainy day and I'm happy to report that it's not giving off any further odor.

 

[webby3650]

Thanks for sharing. I knew they did the oil treatment for counter tops, but I had never heard it being done for stoves.

It's great for counter tops, but is not recommended for stoves. I've never heard of anyone else trying this on a stove before. It doesn't soak into the stone really, just sits on top and has to be applied pretty often as it wears off. With a stove, it'll just burn right off with no benefit.

 

[Highbeam]

I oiled my soapstone kettle. It looked really nice but faded away over time. Like weeks.