Thread: Old Brazilian Water Hones "Piedra Brazil" (Schist)

Brazil is a big country with a very big and active mining industry. If there were some great hones there they would be in production today.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Brazil is a big country with a very big and active mining industry. If there were some great hones there they would be in production today.

Hey they still produce hones today....ok not the one shown from that Catalogue ;-)

I did end up getting the 6 X 2 Green Brazillian hone, I missed out on the larger 8 X 2. I'd pay almost anything to get another one of these even though the slurry stone doesn't seem to make any slurry unless it is translucent. This stone is quite remarkable. Stone is fast but it does not wear at all..... it maintains its glassy like surface. Feedback is very sobering, you need to be alert. In all seriousness, it puts one of the best edges on any razor I have ever tried it on and I have a good selection of jnats, Escher/Thuri to compare it to.

Originally Posted by Aerdvaark

I did end up getting the 6 X 2 Green Brazillian hone, I missed out on the larger 8 X 2. I'd pay almost anything to get another one of these even though the slurry stone doesn't seem to make any slurry unless it is translucent. This stone is quite remarkable. Stone is fast but it does not wear at all..... it maintains its glassy like surface. Feedback is very sobering, you need to be alert. In all seriousness, it puts one of the best edges on any razor I have ever tried it on and I have a good selection of jnats, Escher/Thuri to compare it to.

Well sounds like we all should buy some brazillian Slate tiles ;-)

....really hard to beat Thuris and Jnats, surely not impossible....

No, don't buy any, I'm not trying to push them, sorry if it sounded like I did. Don't mind me, I get over excited about almost anything. They are pretty darn impressive though. I ruled it out as soon as I got it because truthfully, it was cheap and I didn't want to think that all these expensive Eschers and jnats I have could be equaled, I see where your coming from. I continued messing around with it though, I threw some koma nagura at it and literally blew my socks off. Same thing with some light green thuri slurry. Today, I will restore at least one razor. When the time comes to finish it I have a box and shelf full of stones to die for. What do I use to put the final edge on? This dumb little 34 dollar stone...

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Brazil is a big country with a very big and active mining industry. If there were some great hones there they would be in production today.

In most slate quarries there is material that can be used for hones. But the need for hones today has declined/it's almost non existent. And the ones who use hones are professional woodworkers and us razor guys mostly. Even most chefs are satisfied with "honing steel" and cheap coarse stones. A few years back, I contacted a few slate quarries in Europe about stone for polishing/finishing, most who answered had stones to offer, even from the "Franconian" slate quarry, and the price was a tenth from that of the stone sold. I didn't buy any in the end, the mail was a question, but chances are, some of them would be razor grade.
If you were to compare a big quarry that produces tons of slate everyday with hundreds of workers, and a small hone quarry with a couple of workers like today's Cretan stone/Pyrenees sandstone/Rozsutec and a few others, there is a huge difference on goals, with different equipment, as well as income. I'm sure there are high quality stones in Brazil, but I doubt anyone working there would be interested in starting searching for hones. Maybe a worker who shaves with a SR or likes woodworking but nothing more than that. And I doubt the owners would be interested in starting with a new line where they would produce hones out of that material. Sad for us but true.

hey all, i'm a new member. may grandfather was a rabbi and also worked as a kosher meat slaughterer (shochet). i have many great and unknown stones, the youngest stones are 50 years old.. some of them are brazilian stones he gave me of many kinds and sizes. i can tell - these stones are great. they last for a lifetime (unlike coticule and thuringian that wear relatively fast), they super fine finisher, and moderately fast.
if someone interested im looking for one more yellow green thuringian (the one i have is a memory from my grandpa and not for use), and a natural combo coticule. size should be at least 20 x 4.5 cm. so im open for some kind of trade (depends of what you have to offer, maybe with extra money from one side..). if someone will want ill post some photos

Definitely post some pictures.

Originally Posted by Martin103

Looking at the label of the Brazilian hone, it seems to me that this is a natural stone from Brazil as you can see on the label "Sole Proprietor de la Diamanta quarries".

Tc blade has a Brazilian Black slate on his webpage.
Attachment 161514

I have an Imperia La Roccia hone that looks a lot like the Brazilian water hone pictured. I know that the sellers of the ILR are not forthcoming about the geographical source of their hones. SRP forum members have dissed the stones as a result. I always wondered whether the stones might be sourced from somewhere in South America; after all, we have hones from Europe, Asia, North America, and South Africa, so why do we not have hones from South America? Perhaps we already do. If ILR stones are from South America, I have NO evidence that they do, I can understand why the sellers would not identify the source of the stones. Just like we make fun of Chinese Guangxi hones, calling them PHIG, we would likely do the same with a hone from Brazil or another South American country. Hones should be evaluated based on their performance rather than on their country of origin.

BTW, like all natural hones, no matter what the source, ILR hones vary in quality. I have one that is an excellent finisher and another that is more of a prefinisher. I can get better edges off my ILR than I get from my Coticule, but that does not mean that all ILR hones are better than all Coticules. I am just comparing two specific stones in my possession.

here are some pictures of a few brazillian hones from my collection. all bought by my father about 40 years ago. as you can see they differ in color and texture. some of them needs lapping