Thread: Tam O'Shanter?

Can anyone tell me about this mysterious hone?

I'm kind of romantic about natural hones. And a fan of Robert Burns, the 18th-century Scottish poet who wrote the poem after which this hone is named, and from whose hometown the stone is quarried.

Does anyone have one? Has anyone ever used one?

"Tam O'Shanter" is about a married guy who stays out late, gets very drunk and has a sort of close encounter with a witch on his way home.

Originally Posted by dylandog

"Tam O'Shanter" is about a married guy who stays out late, gets very drunk and has a sort of close encounter with a witch on his way home.

That's not how to tell a story, lad. You'll have to do better than that.

X

Or post the whole poem. I'd like to read it.

Originally Posted by dylandog

Can anyone tell me about this mysterious hone?

I'm kind of romantic about natural hones. And a fan of Robert Burns, the 18th-century Scottish poet who wrote the poem after which this hone is named, and from whose hometown the stone is quarried.

Does anyone have one? Has anyone ever used one?

"Tam O'Shanter" is about a married guy who stays out late, gets very drunk and has a sort of close encounter with a witch on his way home.

I have one. I use one. I think it's one of the best hones out there. Once I've got the bevel set with my 4K, the Tam O' Shanter is the hone I go to. The only downside to it is that it cuts veeeeerrrrryyyy sllllooooooowwww, but the edge I get is incredible. It's very hard to overhone with it, and it works magnificently for removing the small micronicking on the edge. When I say slow, I mean you're probably looking at at least 100 laps on it before going on to the 8k/coticule/pasted strop, or whatever you finish up with. It's probably around 6k, but again, is slow cutting. I'm not sure about the grit...that's just a guess. I don't use my 4k nearly as much now that I have it, which is good considering I've damn near worn out a 4k already. Those darn things are expensive to replace. They're kinda hard to come by, but worth it, IMO. Hope that was what you were looking for.

Joe

Here's a link to the poem - it may take you a while to get through it but there's some glossary help for you too.
http://www.robertburns.org/works/308.shtml

I have a new Tam O'Shanter hone and love it. Coully ought to be along soon with more info as he probably has the worlds largest collection of these out there. I think Randy and Lynn both have examples identical to mine. There is a sorce still for these which Coully may be able to help you with.

Tony

Originally Posted by xman

That's not how to tell a story, lad. You'll have to do better than that.

X

Piqued your interest though didn't I.

Originally Posted by xman

That's not how to tell a story, lad. You'll have to do better than that.

X

The man of letters Cleanth Brooks used to talk about the “heresy of paraphrase,” meaning that a good poem by definition couldn’t be told in words different from the ones it’s made of. All the more so in Burns’s case, since the fascination of dialect poetry, sorta like with natural stones, is in its rough authenticity and local particularities.

"Inspiring bold John Barleycorn!
What dangers thou canst make us scorn!
Wi' tippenny, we fear nae evil;
Wi' usquabae, we'll face the devil!"

We all know that liquor gives you false courage, but it’s cool to find out that ‘tippenny’ is cheap beer (two pennies worth) and that ‘usquabae’ is ‘water of life’ (i.e. whiskey). And that in 18th century Scots ‘evil’ and ‘devil’ rhymed.

Anyway so Tam O’Shanter, his spirits swollen up on booze and bonhomie and flirtatiousness, braves the ominous night and drives home drunk on his mare:

"The hour approaches Tam maun ride;
That hour, o' night's black arch the key-stane,
That dreary hour he mounts his beast in;
And sic a night he taks the road in,
As ne'er poor sinner was abroad in."

The description of the landscape after this is haunting and beautiful. Tam eventually comes upon a coven of witches dancing. In their fervor they're working up a good sweat and considerable B.O. so they strip down to their underthings ("The reel'd, they set, they cross'd, they cleekit,/Till ilka carlin swat and reekit,/And coost her duddies to the wark,/And linkit at it in her sark!"). Most are hags but one is, well, bewitching. Her undershirt is one her grandma bought for her when she was little, so it's too small – a "cutty sark" (short shirt). Poor peeping Tam gets horny watching her, and he lets out a sort of involuntary whoop and holler. The witches realize they were being watched and give chase, he makes it over a bridge they can't pass (Burns explains why not in a footnote) and the comely makes a final lunge for him but only manages to rip the tail off his horse's ass. Tam gets home OK.

That's the best I can do, X-man.

But rewind for a minute to those reeling, reeking ‘carlins’ (witches), when each ‘coost her duddies’ (throws her clothes off) onto the ‘wark’:

That ‘wark’ is apparently an old Scottish word for a very hard stone present in strata over coal-veins. As the tale takes place in Ayr, it looks like Burns's witches were stripping down right next to Coully’s future collection of razor hones.

Old Scottish always takes me forever to get into. Since I've read a couple of novels, I had a bit of prep but I still found the poem a bit difficult to follow.

The Tam O'Shanter hone is a really good hone. I have to second Joe's comments. I have two of them and dispite the difficulty of obtaining them I am more than pleased with their performance. I have to say may thank you's to Simon Coul for helping me purchase them.

They are not being mined anymore, a lack of insurance frced the closure of the mine 2-3 years ago. The owner is Kenneth Montgomerie and the mine's have been in his family since 1876. Before the mine was closed they quarried out and stashed away a bunch of the rock.

Here is a link to some pics of the hone works
http://www.flickr.com/photos/randyda...7594346511854/

Just click on one of the small pic's and after it is open then click on "all sizes". The gentleman in te pic's is Kenneth Montgomerie. The stone that you see is al that is left.




If you are really interested than talk to Simon because they have no computer or email, no Paypal and only accept English Pounds Sterling for payment. Oh... they are really slooooow to fill orders!

But its a great hone!