ART
BEAUTY & WELLNESS
CRAFT
CULTURE & HISTORY
ENTERTAINMENT
ENVIRONMENT
FOOD & DRINKS
REVERSE ENGINEERING
SCIENCES
SPORTS
TECHNOLOGY
WEARABLES
Tailor's Chalk: Thin Soapstone Cakes with Bevelled Edges
Tailor's chalk, also called French chalk, marks cloth for cutting and brushes off again; today it is usually talc. Soapstone is mostly talc, soft and easy to work, and seamstresses have long marked with it. Saw a block into thin square cakes and bevel the edges so they draw a fine line.
The picture: our diagram, a cake from above and from the side, and the line it leaves on cloth.
Beginner
An afternoon
Instructions
1
1
Slice the block
Slice the block
Saw the soapstone into slices about 6 mm thick on a bench hook, then into squares of about 45 mm (our sizes).
Materials for this step:
Soapstone Block1 kgTools needed:
Small Hand Saw
Bench Hook
Ruler
Dust Mask2
2
Bevel the edges
Bevel the edges
Rasp each edge to a bevel from both faces so the edge is thin, then rub the faces and edges smooth on a sandstone slab.
Tools needed:
Rasp
Sandstone SlabDust Mask3
3
Try it
Try it
Draw along a ruler on a scrap of cloth: the line should be fine and visible, and brush off. Re-dress the edge on the slab when it wears round.
Tools needed:
RulerSandstone Slab4
4
Cakes from a block
Cakes from a block
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
Materials
1- 1 kgPlaceholder
This blueprint makes
Related Blueprints
These blueprints share knowledge with this one — techniques, materials, or principles that connect them in the learning graph.
CC0 Public Domain
This blueprint is released under CC0. You are free to copy, modify, distribute, and use this work for any purpose, without asking permission.
Support the Maker by purchasing products through their Blueprint where they earn a Maker Commission set by Vendors, or create a new iteration of this Blueprint and include it as a connection in your own Blueprint to share revenue.