Thread: imperia la roccia

All naturals usually say where they are from except for this guy. Why the secret? He might be some moonshiner in the hills somewhere in Tennessee making his product in a cave & got some crazy idea to start selling the stone out of it.

See there it is again, like I said the original thing I saw was people worrying about not knowing where the stone comes from.
If it is something relatively easy to source, I don't blame them. You tell where it comes from and folks can find it, guess what? Their out of a job! But you are welcome to go out and try your own rocks haha

I remember when those showed up on ebay for $10 or something. Now they're $50 and $90?

And in the demo video, the stones show to have a bunch of stiction - coupled with a completely offputting used car salesman vibe on the site in general.

gah.

Originally Posted by glytch5

See there it is again, like I said the original thing I saw was people worrying about not knowing where the stone comes from.
If it is something relatively easy to source, I don't blame them. You tell where it comes from and folks can find it, guess what? Their out of a job! But you are welcome to go out and try your own rocks haha

Let me try the reverse for you


Name one other Hone that we use on SR's that we do not know the source better yet one that the people selling it consciously through the name and the original ads mislead the community at large as to their country and region of origin

PS: Just for information the real cost of the production of natural hones is in the Mining, Cutting and Polishing process yes you have to know where to look but you have to invest it making it into a Hone rather than just a another rock


PPS: The same marketing seems to follow most "New" naturals out there introduced to this tiny market

Sell it cheap, up the WAG at the Grit rating, up the price, find a new "Vein" up the WAG Grit Rating again up the price

Rinse and repeat

Not knowing the source is enough to keep me from buying a stone. I don't have anything that I couldn't locate the source of and I'd hesitate to count the number of stones I've bought. It's a matter of courtesy.

Agree on the cost of finishing - the larger and harder the stone and the less reliable the deposit, the more it costs to do that. This appears to be a common stone with a stiction problem from the demonstration. If it finishes a razor for $15, great. If it costs $90 and has a stiction problem, not so great.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Let me try the reverse for you


PS: Just for information the real cost of the production of natural hones is in the Mining, Cutting and Polishing process yes you have to know where to look but you have to invest it making it into a Hone rather than just a another rock

Unless you find a slate quarry that has a guy who will pick out the slate for you, or have one close by that will let you come do some QA, It might up your costs from having some worthless roof tiles, or you simply downgrade the grit rating to a 'mid range or 4-5k'

“I still don't get why to bother being worked up about something putting a grit estimate on something... how is that a deal breaker!?!?! who cares?”

Because, they are not man made with any quality control. They took Thousands/ Millions of years to make, at the bottom of a riverbed of silt.

Just one rock rolling down that bed, could impart a different grit, and change the whole performance of the stone.

What are the chances, that nothing changed in that piece of riverbed, for thousands of years?

What Matt’s stone, yours or my stria pattern looks like, is not an indication of what the next one to sell, will perform like.

Actually, that yours, Matt’s and my stone perform so differently, says more about the stone, and Naturals in general.

The down side is, that some new guy comes along, reads these post and thinks he can buy a Holy Grail stone for a song, and really all he’s buying is a paper weight, that will sit in a drawer.

“I know this sounds like super defending of the product... but I got to beg the differ on a lot of this. I'm not head over heals for the stone, in fact I don't use it often.”

So, what do, you use, and why?

Originally Posted by glytch5

I hear ya man... makes sense. I still don't get why to bother being worked up about something putting a grit estimate on something... how is that a deal breaker!?!?! who cares? Thats my opinion. Everyone out there who gets into this hobby wants to know "what grit" something is. Besides if you watched Dr. Matt's video on the stone, he showed that the thing puts on a finer scratch pattern than synthetic stones in that grit range. I know this sounds like super defending of the product... but I got to beg the differ on a lot of this. I'm not head over heals for the stone, in fact I don't use it often... idk

Here is another video that you may have not seen before. Gives you some food for thought.

Yep Keith posted that a little while back and I thought he gave the rock a fair shot at proving something. I am certainly not a typical seeker of the next magic natural. I think history has taught us over the centuries what works and works well. And wish folks would stop chasing unicorns only to find the thing they caught is a donkey.

Yeap saw that vide... if you want to know and interesting fact-o about this video you can PM me. I'm not trying to put other peoples private matters up on a public forum.

I'm willing to bet most of you probably don't even own the stone, or have tried one more than once. Thats okay but ya'll are being very non objective for a friendly forum. There are many happy people out there with these hones.

FYI Euclid: I'm sorry to inform you that I cannot respond to you on any matter. Just about every post I have ever made you try your best to drive me nuts. So i'm going to just walk away from anything you have to say on this.

I love the entire forum coming after me on this! This is fun!
No matter what is said I will not be convinced different about a hone that cost me around 50 after shipping that I can shave off comfortably. I can certainly say I have bought a couple cotis with BS french names that were complete garbage from reputable dealers... but we won't discuss that! : )