Last week my wife, 2 daughters and I visited Ardennes Coticules in Belgium. The owner, Maurice Celis showed us round in the workshop: a 150 year old building he had bought in 1999. He used to be a mining engineer to the Belgian coal mines who had become unemployed when the collieries closed down.

it is an open cast slate quarry with 20 odd coticule veins. Coticules are a by product.

I bought a nice kosher quality coticule 6 x 1 13/18 size coticule that is actually a quite fast cutting stone. I like it a lot! At 60 euros not very expensive.

After that we went to the quarry itself just down the road. Amongst the rubble I picked up a few pieces of unprocessed coticule. The veins of coticule were clearly visible in the rock face.

Just wanted to let you guys know.