Soapstone is soft, heat-resistant and dense, which is why it has been used for everyday objects since time immemorial. These special properties make soapstone the ideal raw material for kettles, cooking pots, all kinds of small utensils and sculptures. The earliest evidence of the use of soapstone dates back to the Stone Age.
The Hittites of Asia Minor (2000 BC) used soapstone to make cylinder seals. In Iran there are steatite vessels dating from the 3rd millennium BC.
Later, working soapstone into cooking pots was particularly widespread in the Roman Empire, where the products were not only used locally but also exported as far as present-day Germany and France.
The Vikings of the early Middle Ages (800–1060) used soapstone to make vessels, spindle whorls, weights and flywheels for wood drills.
In many countries, soapstone has also been used since the Middle Ages to decorate buildings or directly as a building material.
In Brazil, soapstone is closely linked with the work of the most important architect and sculptor of the Brazilian Baroque, Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho (1738–1814), who adorned numerous churches with sculptures made of the local soapstone. These works have been preserved to this day in several towns in Minas Gerais.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the Canadian Inuit began to create small soapstone sculptures, which quickly gained international recognition and became an important source of income.
In many northern regions, soapstone stoves have traditionally been used to heat rooms because of their exceptionally long heat retention.
The German name “Speckstein” (literally “bacon stone”) refers to the soapy or greasy surface resulting from the high talc content. When talc dominates (from 35% to 100%), the rock is called steatite or simply talc.
The old Norwegian word “kleberstein” refers to the use of soapstone rings in looms, “grytestein” to its use as “stone cooking pots”.
In Swedish, the word “täljsten” was used, meaning a stone that is easy to carve. In Denmark the material was called “fedtsten”.
In German-speaking countries there are various names, such as Speckstein, Seifenstein, Lavezstein, Topfstein and Ofenstein.
In English, the terms soapstone and talc are common; in French, pierre ollaire and pierre à savon. In Italian, soapstone is called pietra ollare, steatite or pietra saponaria. The Portuguese word is pedra sabão, and in Spanish it is esteatita.