More Rocks

[essexalan]

Four I acquired recently.



Left to right 1) Washita, 2) Unknown, 3) Unknown, 4) possibly a chunk of SiC.

2)

Salmen label on the back, has an subtle olive hue to it with sparkly inclusions. Slow fine cutter not as hard as the Washita, darkens when water is applied but water does not soak in. I have dressed this.

3)

Needs dressing, stone is convex, but it cuts reasonably fast and gives a slightly better finish than the Washita, seems quite friable but hard, water stays on the surface.

4) I will have to give this a run with some harder/tougher steels

 

[D_W]

#2 sounds like a yellow lake.

Hard to tell for sure what 3 is without having it in hand (whether it's sandstone or novaculite).

Right on #4.

 

[adrspach]

#2 what is the size?
#3 do you have a side view?

 

[essexalan]

DW Many thanks for your reply, I do have a boxed Yellow Lake sized 8" x 1 3/4" x 1/2" and it is different to 2) softer and a different colour. But you do seem to get a lot of variety in these quarries. Salmen sold a lot of different natural stones under their label.

Adrspach 2) is 8" x 2" x 1" 3) I dressed the stone on the side in the pic and a lot of cream coloured slurry was produced, honing a gouge on the stone showed that the darker diagonal stripes were coarser abrasive. The other side was the same colour so I dressed that and some thin darker red/brown patches started to appear more when I took some steel to it. Dressing one of the sides showed about five layers of the cream colour interspersed with very thin dark lines. I thought perhaps Hindostan but the entire stone was covered in the cream colour so I don't think so. I will try and get some more pics tomorrow. Both were nice and cheap and are users from my POV but it would be nice to know what they are.

 

[essexalan]

Side pics and next layer showing through. Probably a Hindostan or perhaps one of those Canadian stones, reckon the grit is about 4K perhaps more if I lapped it with something of finer grade. It does remove the scratches from the small Yellow Lake that I have but that needs lapping as well.







Thanks

Alan

 

[D_W]

Looks like hindostan, and a clean one (though I have no clue how to tell the difference between a magog and a hindostan).

 

[adrspach]

Ok, thank you for the information.
In my opinion #2 is salmen's Oil Stone and #3 Hindostan

 

[essexalan]

Thanks! I guess Salmen's oil stone is their name for a Yellow Lake or is it a generic name Salmen used for all their stones? Stone is settling in nicely and seems a bit finer than the Hindostan. Only used water and plain steel on it so far.

 

[D_W]

IIRC, yellow lake is a quarry. Some of the stone boxes have it listed in the name of the hone if you do a google image search, and others have "yellow lake brand" listed off to the side, which would make one think that not all of the stones came from the yellow lake quarry but it was valuable enough to retain it and call it a "brand".

 

[adrspach]

Salmens Oil stone is a brand Salmens used, however sometimes they have used YL as well as other slates and have seen even carborundum.
Yellow Lake is a quarry in Snowdonia, however the material from there is novaculite not slate. YL is brand of slate hones.

 

[swagman]

Its excellent to see the growing interest reverting back to more traditional Natural Honing Stones. Can only hope that this will lead to a greater understanding of the benefits gained from more conventional W1 and 01 type tool steels within woodworking tools.

Stewie;

 

[essexalan]

Salmens Oil stone is a brand Salmens used, however sometimes they have used YL as well as other slates and have seen even carborundum.
Yellow Lake is a quarry in Snowdonia, however the material from there is novaculite not slate. YL is brand of slate hones.

So in fact Llyn Melynllyn stones are novaculite and not slate at all which makes sense from the quartz type chippings found around the old stone working machinery. So any idea what an LM stone actually looks like? I thought it was a bit of a long, tough walk just for lumps of slate. I think the hones must have been kind of famous if Salmen decided to cash in on the English translation as a trade name.

 

[adrspach]

Salmens Oil stone is a brand Salmens used, however sometimes they have used YL as well as other slates and have seen even carborundum.
Yellow Lake is a quarry in Snowdonia, however the material from there is novaculite not slate. YL is brand of slate hones.

So in fact Llyn Melynllyn stones are novaculite and not slate at all which makes sense from the quartz type chippings found around the old stone working machinery. So any idea what an LM stone actually looks like? I thought it was a bit of a long, tough walk just for lumps of slate. I think the hones must have been kind of famous if Salmen decided to cash in on the English translation as a trade name.

To clarify that there is no mis interpretation.
Llyn Melynllyn are welsh slate hones which have only name in common with Llyn Melynllyn quarry where used to be quarried novaculite rock for hones.
BTW it is not that bad walk to the quarry about and hour and half on dirt track all the way and not far from there is even bothy if you want to make it into overnighter in beautifull part of Snowdonia.
The original LM quarry hone looks like Moel Siabod hone.

 

[essexalan]

Salmens Oil stone is a brand Salmens used, however sometimes they have used YL as well as other slates and have seen even carborundum.
Yellow Lake is a quarry in Snowdonia, however the material from there is novaculite not slate. YL is brand of slate hones.

So in fact Llyn Melynllyn stones are novaculite and not slate at all which makes sense from the quartz type chippings found around the old stone working machinery. So any idea what an LM stone actually looks like? I thought it was a bit of a long, tough walk just for lumps of slate. I think the hones must have been kind of famous if Salmen decided to cash in on the English translation as a trade name.

To clarify that there is no mis interpretation.
Llyn Melynllyn are welsh slate hones which have only name in common with Llyn Melynllyn quarry where used to be quarried novaculite rock for hones.
BTW it is not that bad walk to the quarry about and hour and half on dirt track all the way and not far from there is even bothy if you want to make it into overnighter in beautifull part of Snowdonia.
The original LM quarry hone looks like Moel Siabod hone.

Thanks for the info. a month earlier and I would have loaded up the camping gear and dogs and gone for a look. Lots a quarries in that area seem worth a visit just for interests sake but from memory of walks when I was a lot younger some of these can be more than a bit dangerous. Certainly a sight of the rock in question would give me some insight into what I am looking at in shops and on ebay. Very interesting stuff and I have tracked down a book that should prove useful.

 

[adrspach]

Let me know when you have motivation to go i could join you and show you where it is. It is in fact better to go in the autumn when the leaves and shrubbery are gone and you can actually see what you looking for. As with the danger LM quarry apart from last 100 yds going directly to the quarry is pretty safe. All the way on a dirt track not counting 1 style.

 

[essexalan]

I have the motivation right now thank you for the offer. Just thinking it would be a bit late this year but perhaps I worry too much. Will PM my details if that is OK?