Thread: Yellow Lake shenanigans

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:



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:



And this is what it looks like sitting atop AJ's Llyn Melynllyn:



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.



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.

Nice rock, Marshal-You gonna burnish it to where you can see your reflection? Or does that type of slate need some tooth in the finish?

That's a good question...and one I don't have a ready answer for. I like the results I got polishing the stuffing out of my other slates. But the back side of them that I use with slurry still has tooth since they were unmarred new stone and finishing the surfaces differently was an option.

This one didn't come with a slurry stone, and I want to preserve the scratches, so I was just going to polish the one surface like I do just about everything else. Testing it versus my other polished slates without the same treatment wouldn't exactly be fair.

But for kicks and grins I could pause the polishing process at certain intervals and do a quick touch-up/test shave with something to see what (if anything) happens. No harm adding more experiments to the game plan.

Could have been used to sharpen darts.

I'm going to opt to continue believing my little scamp narrative. Partly because it brings back fond memories of mischievous things I did as a kid, partly because if those gouges were made by darts I pity the poor projectiles. Those digs are pretty deep and I can't imagine it resulting in anything but dulling whatever made them.

Originally Posted by Marshal

I'm going to opt to continue believing my little scamp narrative. Partly because it brings back fond memories of mischievous things I did as a kid, partly because if those gouges were made by darts I pity the poor projectiles. Those digs are pretty deep and I can't imagine it resulting in anything but dulling whatever made them.

Personal experience on my dad's BBW/Coticule LOL!

I'm glad you like the stone. I prefer your narrative as well.


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The scratches might be from sharpening fish hooks, though usually you see something like v-shaped grooves on or near an edge. Maybe an incompetent fish hook sharpener? Lol.

Cheers, Steve