Breaking soapstone with a hammer gives you massive experience drops.

Single block EXP:

Hammer EXP(9 Blocks):

I thought mining in 3x3 had draw backs like not getting the full amount of XP. When I was mining 3x3 on stone, I was only getting 2-3xp total. It's the same when you use the lumberjack axe on trees. You only get like 2xp for the whole tree. That's what I'm comparing it to.

Getting 23 EXP for 9 would be around 2.5 EXP per block. That's between stone and ores. That isn't too much right?