Thread: My New Welsh Slate Stones!!!

I agree with Lynn they are fun stone and relatively new so there is much to be learned from them. I like my Purple LM best.

Grit rating who know with any natural, I have a fair collection of Arkansas stone and they are all over the map, as are Coticules to an extent. Some finish, some not so well. To the name purist, how do we know that any stone is a… whatever? Except for Eschers that still have labels or the box it came in and even that doesn’t mean that it is the stone that was in the box or with the label? Kind of like first editions and dust covers, have you noticed how many Frictionite stones are surfacing?

This is a big world and there are lots of rocks out there. A bunch that no-one has put a razor to and if they have, we probably have SRP to thank. Is there another … Coticule or Thüringen out there? Or something very similar in another part of the world or perhaps even better? Yea, probably.

The other day I read a thread of someone mining rocks from South Africa, where I am sure only locals may have ever used them. Now, maybe he has found something new or “Like” something else. Getting it out to the masses with his skin intact, may be another story.

So are these rocks what AJ claims or “like” what he claims? Don’t know. But I also don’t really know if any other rocks on EBay are what anyone claims especially rare, unusual ones.

Grit ratings are another thing and really anything over 6-8k can be a finisher. I agree with Jimbo, if the edge performs like an X grit synthetic then maybe, but yours may be X grit mine may not. Bottom line for me is, if I can comfortably shave straight off the edge, it’s a finisher in my book.

I have read all the threads here on these and agree the posts on grit ratings have gone up, but that can be said for other stones as well, like fishing stories, “It was that big”. So I don’t know what AJ has found, but the ones I have are finishers. I am happy with mine and I do agree he has been somewhat maligned, but to be fair his claims are “other people are saying”… and most of us do agree, they are nice rocks at great prices. I’m sure Lynn, Glenn and others can squeeze a lot more out of them, than I can and look forward to your tips.

Enjoy them Brooksie.