A stone so soft it can be carved with a kitchen knife. A pale translucent greenish white, it can produce stunning effects, It can take very fine detail easily and has a long tradition in china for making decorative items. In the days when talcum powder was produced locally at small factories soapstone (also called steatite) was easy to purchase for a pittance by self selecting a few suitable blocks from large piles, but now that it is available only in art supply shops it is both much more expensive and the choice of blocks more limited. Not only the raw material for talcum powder soap stone is cut into small pieces called French Chalk which is useful for drawing designs on metal especially steel.