How to Carve Stone Like Butter: You've Never Seen a Craft Kit Like This!

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​Watch the Project Video here!

Stone carving has always felt like an art form that isn’t for the “Average Joe” (-or “Average Jane”, in my case. 🤪) It has always seemed inaccessible due to the hardness of the material or the need for specialized tools. I was always under the impression that stone carving either took ages to do, or required a large up-front investment in tools. 

However, I recently stumbled upon a company called Rubble Road, which makes affordable, entry-level soapstone carving kits for beginners.  I actually got a targeted ad for their stone carving kits on Instagram, and they got me! I wanted one!

Disclosure: I reached-out to Rubble Road and asked if they’d consider sending me a kit to review. They generously provided the kit to me at no cost but have not otherwise paid for this content. Any links I’ve provided here are for your convenience only.

Alright, let's do some stone carving magic!

The soapstone carving kit came in a well-packaged, compact shipping box.

The Unboxing:

The kit arrived in a compact box, and included everything needed to create a low relief carving of a fox. I chose the small fox kit from over 24 options. The stone came blocked-out for me, with the waste stone already removed and the fox shape already roughed out. The kit also included abrasive mesh, sandpapers, and finishing oil.

​I think I got super lucky. The colours and character in the Brazilian soapstone piece were amazing! It's hard to tell from the photo, but my particular piece of soapstone had a lot of character and a beautiful range of colours.

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Setting up a workstation using two identical bins.

Setting-Up

Before jumping into the carving, I took a minute to set up a comfortable workstation. You need to do the carving wet, to eliminate the risk of dust inhalation. I used two identical bins to create a comfortable workstation. The first is filled with warm water. I flipped the second upside down to use as an armrest.

Another thing I did before getting my hands wet was queue-up the instructional video on Rubble Road’s YouTube channel. Rubble Road has a real-time video tutorial for each kit.

Beginning the carving with the abrasive mesh.

Carving

The first steps are to fold the abrasive mesh and use it to define the shapes of your carving. I was impressed with how easily it was to cut into the stone. I didn't have to push too hard. The abrasive really does the work for you!

The second step is to create some depth by removing the stone on the background legs. I found it really helpful to look at a reference image for this.

The next step is to define the tail. I made a little mistake here. If I have any criticism or critique of Rubble Road's instruction, it was that this part of the video was a bit hard to see. I discuss this in more detail in my YouTube video on this project. I was able to fix it, but this is something to be conscious of. You unfortunately can't put stone back on once its carved away. 

The stone is really buttery and the abrasive is really efficient.  I was able to follow along with Rubble Road's instructional video, pausing as I needed, and finish this step of the carving process in under an hour.

The tail has been polished with the 320-grit sand paper.

Polishing

The kit provides two stages of polishing sandpaper. As instructed, I started with the 320-grit. I wet-polished with this paper, getting in all the little nooks and crannies. It was really easy to see where I had polished. The paper worked well at removing the scratches left behind by the abrasive mesh.  This step took me about 10 minutes, but I was probably labouring over it a little longer than I needed to. 😉

At this point I dumped my water outside. Don't put this down your drain, there's lots of cuttings in the water that will clog your plumbing. I started with nice fresh, warm water and gave my sculpture a good rinse too.  

I then repeated the process with the 600-grit paper, rinsed the project again, and left it to dry overnight.

Applying the included tung oil with the cotton bud.

Finishing

The next day the carving was good and dry, so I applied the finishing oil. The kit comes with more than enough tung oil to finish the sculpture and a cotton bud to apply it. I gave my fox a liberal oiling, let it sit for an hour, then gave it a gently burnish with a paper towel.

I like the satin finish I got after a single coat of oil. However, there was plenty leftover if I wanted to do a second coat for a more glossy look.

My finished fox. I think this is a high-quality finished product. I'll be keeping this forever!

Final Thoughts

At time of posting, this kit retails for about $25 Canadian. For me, this is really great value. Carving stone is just a really cool thing to do, and I love my little fox! I will keep it forever!

The tools in the kit were more than adequate to complete my fox. The sanding papers still had lots of life in them, and I had plenty of oil leftover. I don't have much negative to say about the experience, though one caveat is that stone carving in general is a bit unforgiving. If you make a mistake, you can't put the stone back on, but that goes for any reductive sculpting technique.

​I think you should give this one a try. I think Rubble Road really nailed this kit. It's a very cool project at a really good value.

​If you try a kit from Rubble Road based on my recommendation, it would make my freakin' day if you'd tag me when you post it. I'll definitely be doing this again and I want to see what you make! I’m @JaneSawyerMakes on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Threads,  and Twitter (X). If you're interested, you can watch this review in video format below. Please share and pin this article!