Thread: the "real" melynllyn/yellow lake hone?

as far as i know there are two types of melynllyn or yellow lake hones: the black ones, often sold with a salmen label, and the purple type, sometimes with green dots. i have stones of both types:



well, so i came back from a one week hiking trip in wales this afternoon. we walked to the melynllyn (yellow lake) and i collected a few stones from the disused melynllyn hone quarry (labelled like that on the OS map). some still have saw marks on the sides. the strange thing is that these stones look completely different from my other yellow lake hones: light green (greener than on my pictures) with small black spots, quite flaky. i lapped three pieces and honed a razor that will be used tomorrow morning. the stones are rather hard, and it is very difficult to raise a slurry:





with purple and black yellow lake hones:



i was surprised to see that the purple slate with the green dots is extremely common in wales. it is mainly used as a paving stone:





at inigo jones i was told that this slate comes from the penrhyn quarry near bethesda. however in their exhibition i noticed a sample that was marked with pen yr orsedd, an now closed quarry in the northwest of wales in the nantlle valley:



last picture shows one of my new melynllyn hones (right) next to a llyn idwal (melynllyn dry, idwal with oil):



quite confusing, all this, isn't it?

regards,
hans