I mentioned somewhere a while back that someone turned me onto a Yellow Lake stone. Indications are it's from after Mr. Salmen sold the mine, but same stone from the same quarry. Authentic Yellow Lake slate Ebay Photo:
Attachment 267273
This is what it looks like after a Simple Green soak and half decent lapping. Still needs a few minutes of work on the lapping plate, but it's close to ready for polishing:
Attachment 267275
And this is what it looks like sitting atop AJ's Llyn Melynllyn:
Attachment 267276
The Yellow Lake seems to be a deeper purple, the slurry is what I would call violet. I'll get a better picture of that when I finish lapping it tomorrow. I'd wager they would be closer in color were it not for the skim coat of shave lather on the stone I got from AJ.
It has some rather deep scratches in it. Reminiscent of a child finding Granddad's sharpening stone in the shed and scraping it all to hell with a nail before anyone caught him. My inner codger wants to curse the little scamp for roughing up such a stone, but I decided that at least on one side I'll leave his markings in the stone. There probably aren't many Americans that can say one of their razor hones was 'decorated' by a young (and very bored) English boy. It gives the stone character.
Attachment 267284
I suppose after I get it suitably prepared I'll have to pick out a blade and do some testing. I'm thinking Morley Clover honed up up a Norton 8K, then I'll test the Original Yellow Lake VS my other 2 Welsh Slates. Should be an amusing way to pass some time.