Thread: Welsh hone stones

I thought I might as well start a new thread rather than tagging onto the end of the Dragons Tongue thread, apologies for repeating some of this but I thought it worth putting together.

I collected a bunch of stone from an old Welsh hone quarry recently and out of all this rock



that I carried off the hill I have managed to salvage only a couple of pieces worth making into hones, most of the saw cut surfaces of my salvage were at 90 degrees to the cleavage planes, so effectively the cut surfaces were the sides of hones not the tops and most of my pieces are too narrow to be useful or in some cases they have extensive pores. I had to spend some time with sand and a paving slab to get a piece flat enough to lap and this is the result





Finished to 1200 grit and wet, it may look like the surface is rough but its glass smooth, the patterns from the original sediment show beautiful chatoyance. This piece is pretty massive and would make two nice stones if I ever get it cut, works fine as it is though and the weight makes it nice and stable.

I have had a brief honing session on this stone but I have little experience so cant really say much about its performance but it seems to cut faster than a Chinese 12K and it seems to leave a very nice finish. I'll do a proper revew in a few years

Heres a close up of my slurry stone, showing some banding, from the same spoil heap but quite different in apperance



The spoil tip up in the hills that they came from Mill spoil tip containing partly formed hones:: OS grid SH7254 :: Geograph British Isles - photograph every grid square!

I didnt take any pictures when I was there unfortunately but the old building where they cut the hones has been reclaimed by the forest, the waterwheel pit is still visible, the place is quite beautiful and surreal.

And finally in case anyone is interested, here are OS grid ref's for all the hone quarries I have been able to trace in North Wales so far, some of these are worked out. Idwal is probably one of the more famous and easily accessible at the head of Ogwen valley, it is completely worked out I believe.

Moel Siabod SH723541
Melynllyn SH705653
Idwal SH648604
Nantgwynant SH645505
Dolwyddelen SH743528
Cwmyffynan SH648560