Soapstone is Better for Your Museum Slates
Submitted by Catharin and Richard Lewis
If your scholars use real slate pencils or chalk when writing on their slates in your schoolhouse, we have a recommendation.
We found that slate pencils made from natural slate scratch the small slate boards and are not the best to use. We also found that chalk causes a lot of dust to gather in your schoolhouse, and the writing is so large that scholars can't fit as much on their slates as with other pencils.
Our research found that the teacher was often the only one who used chalk, and many schools used soapstone pencils for their students. Soapstone does not create the dust and writes with a finer line than chalk. Soapstone doesn't scratch the surface of the slates since it's a softer stone.
Soapstone pencils are still sold today for welding and sewing purposes. Like other mechanical pencils that hold lead, metal holders for soapstone are also available. At the West Bay Common School Museum in League City, Texas, we only order the soapstone inserts, not the holders. The insert is 5" long and 1/4" in diameter. We break them in half and sharpen both ends to make them even more useful.
You can find these pencils for your schoolhouse by searching "Anchor RD-5 Round Soapstone" on the internet, and you can order any quantity from a single pencil to a box of 144. Prices vary from 12-25 cents per pencil, a bargain. Note: Rectangular soapstone pencils are more popular than round, so be sure of the shape you're ordering.
Here's a quick link to compare prices and locate dealers.
The Find: Anchor RD-5 Round Soapstone
Visit the website of the West Bay Common School!
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