Thread: Dragons Tongue Hone anyone?

Afternoon all.
I read a post on here by some UK chaps talking about British natural stones.
I read with great interest that a stone used to be produced in the Greatest Country on the planet.
Wales.
The name of the stone is The Dragons Tongue !
Here they are.................

Inigo Jones - Welsh Slate Craft Tours and Online Store

£10 odd delivered.
Mine is on the way, well I had to

Just ordered one thanks for the heads up

My pleasure.
How about pressing that button (bottom right) marked 'thanks'?
I asked the lady how many they had, I warned her I would be posting their page here (after I ordered mine) and people may very well want one. She says they did have "some" in stock.
I forgot to ask for a kick-back

Did she say I warned her when you "booked" yours?
M

Do you know anything on grit size and how fast it cuts?

No, unfortunately not. I know it is slate, which is usually used on roofs here. But my last house was quite old and had polished slate mantle-pieces (fire-places)
I would say they felt a bit like my coticule to touch, but God knows really!
For a tenner though, I have to try one.
I also know makar has a book written about hones and the author rated the welsh hone.
I've PM'd makar to warn him of their appearence.

Looks a bit like a Thuringian in the picture

Slate is metamorphosed mud which is also called "phyllite". Coticule is also metamorphosed mud but the chemistry was different while it was cooling and developed the garnet crystals which make that abrasive milk slurry which we love so much. The family of metamorphic stones is characterized as sodium/magnesium aluminosilicates. The big differences that result in properties are derived from slight different amounts of sodium, potassium, magnesium, aluminum, and silica. That's the reason slate is often found near hone quality deposits. It's also why the coticules are mounted on slate. It's stronger than coticule and local - you don't want to have to ship the stuff very far. A good basic book on this is Dana's Mineralogy which is a classic in the field.

i actually came across this hone on another thread, but have been unable to find anyone on here giving a review of how well it worked... have you tried yours out yet?

first off sorry, ignore that last post i made, my browser was messing up and i was only seeing the thread having one pag

after i read through the thread i though hmm, i have a big pyle of slate pavers laying in the backyard lets try this out.... spent about two hours on it tonight and after covering myself in slate dust, and a whole lot of sweat this is what i have so far


its not razor ready, but i tried a pocket knife on it (havent made up a slurry stone yet) and it cuts really fast just a few last little imperfections ive got to work out

That looks about like my DT hone, but I think that has a bit more light colored areas in it....mine is more uniform.


BTW, since you mentioned slurry....anyone know where I can get a slurry stone for my DT? The shipping from Wales is a bit much for just a slurry stone...if there are none around, I might just have to buy another DT and try cutting it into slurry stones and sell off the rest.