Soapstone carving with Efco's Hobby Set

I hope everyone enjoyed the bank holiday weekend... shame the weather wasn't up to much. Hey ho, at least you don't have to make up excuses for not doing the gardening when it's raining and can craft guilt-free! 

My Efco Engraving and Hobby Drill Set arrived - woohoo! - so I've been investigating all the different ends etc that came with it...

It comes in a handy little box and there's 3 ceramic tips for engraving cups and bowls etc, 2 diamond tips which are ideal for working with soapstone, a milling tip and HSS drill bit. The only down side (if you can call it that) is that because it comes from Germany you need an adapter plug for the UK.

So, as I had a broken piece of soapstone knocking about, I decided to have a little experiment so see what was possible. Firstly, I was worried that it might create too much dust, blowing it everywhere, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it made no more dust than when I use the rasps, chisels and files. 

I found that the milling tip created perfect holes through the piece making it possible to turn it into a pendant (the drill bit will probably do the same thing too although I haven't tried it yet). The diamond tips are great for creating 'polka dots' both small and large and I even tried a ceramic tip which not only could smooth off a rough edge but also create a shallow circular recess. 

So the verdict is... Efco's Engraving and Hobby Set is a wonderful addition to my other soapstone carving tools. :)