What's new

Cambrian Green

I thought we could have a thread regarding this stone, to see if people had any thoughts or opinions about it. I'll start with some background info...

The 'Cambrian Green' is often considered to be a type of Idwal stone, and with some justification. It was quarried around Llyn Idwal and is a similar type of fine novaculite, but I think different enough to warrant a distinction. Here's a stone I got recently which I initially thought was an Idwal, and then after using it I changed my mind to a Charnley, and have now done again... I'm pretty sure this is a Cambrian Green:

IMG-6145 (1).jpg



IMG-6328 (1).jpg



It's a bit difficult to see but the stone has some quite distinctive black lines patterning it, which don't look like the lines in normal Idwal stones. Stone is also softer than Idwals - it doesn't have the hard, slightly dead feedback, and feels more like a CF. At 2.71 the SG is bang in the middle of where Charnleys sit: slightly lower than Idwals are normally. And under a scope it looks like a Charnley too, which are slightly purer novaculites than Idwals are. You can understand why I thought this was a CF.

Idwal, Cambrian, Charnley:

1158718-6dc4120ed204807728a719f3d57201ba (1).jpg
1158720-e8153df872ab5fbd81707aedd0f39e8e (1).jpg
1158721-a1d07a60cf08bcfcb34b35aa3654b651 (1).jpg

---

But as I say - after some research on Russian forums I've changed my mind again. And I'm now fairly confident this is the stone they call the Cambrian Green. The picture below I've screenshotted from a member on one of those forums (if this is a problem mods then please delete or give me a shout and I can ask permission).

Screenshot 2022-06-09 150813.png



The top stone is an Idwal the bottom a Cambrian, and the way those swirly black lines are is exactly the same as in my stone. Descriptions of its fineness differ slightly with some apparently prefinishers, others finishing stones, oldTor for instance uses the Idwal before the Cambrian. So it seems likely that the stones probably occupy a similar range to Idwals and Charnleys with some coarser examples, some finer. One thing that does seem generally agreed on is that the stone is quite soft in comparison to Idwals and slurries easier. Which makes it quite fast; my stone is a really lovely finishing stone, and surprisingly quick.

When I first got it I said to another member that it was right up there with the best whetstones I owned, which is something I'd stand by still; it has a remarkable combination of feeling gorgeous, finishing very fine, yet being really rather quick.

IMG-8049 (1) (1).jpg





So... anyone else got a Cambrian Green? Or any thoughts on the above?
 
Last edited:
Is there more information out there than this site?

I have a stone that is full of the inclusions that Old Tor shows and describes....

"there are some oblong inclusions in the structure, which, when I first drew attention to them, seemed to me just stick to the stone with spools of wet cardboard or sawdust. However, these are inclusions, and are present in all the cambrians that I have now so carefully watched."

I can't say with any certainty that it makes my stone a Cambrian Green though.

BTW it's spg is 2.73.
 
Is there more information out there than this site?

I have a stone that is full of the inclusions that Old Tor shows and describes....

"there are some oblong inclusions in the structure, which, when I first drew attention to them, seemed to me just stick to the stone with spools of wet cardboard or sawdust. However, these are inclusions, and are present in all the cambrians that I have now so carefully watched."

I can't say with any certainty that it makes my stone a Cambrian Green though.

BTW it's spg is 2.73.

Ah is that his website...? I was going mostly off this thread: Cambrian Green - Guns.ru Talks - https://forum.guns.ru/forummessage/224/1447554.html which appears to be many of the same posts.

Perhaps then this is a distinction that a lot of people don't bother making. Though my stone is sufficiently different from regular Idwals, including 'Grecians', into making me think it must be a CF. Mine doesn't really have spots, but it is very surely the same kind of thing as his one below. It's a different kind of green to normal Idwals too.


Screenshot 2022-06-09 182316.png



Got any pictures of your stone?
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Something like this?

IMG_20220609_204417.jpg
Don't know what you would call it but it's like a very hard fine slate.
 
Although it comes from a different continent, the Vermont Green slate looks a lot like the one you show. Mine hones somewhere around the 12K level. It does not produce an edge quite sharp enough for my beard, but with some pasted strops afterward, it is fine. I use it typically as a prefinisher and then finish with an even finer stone.
 
Like this? Way finer and more friable than my llyn Idwals.
View attachment 1469355View attachment 1469357View attachment 1469358


I'm not an expert on this at all btw! I was more kinda asking a q. as to whether people thought there was a distinction worth drawing. Also worth noting that Idwals probably came from a number of different quarries, so there probably all sorts of types of them.

(But no - yours doesn't really look like the pics that some people have posted of 'Cambrian Green' stones I don't think).
 
I'm not an expert on this at all btw! I was more kinda asking a q. as to whether people thought there was a distinction worth drawing. Also worth noting that Idwals probably came from a number of different quarries, so there probably all sorts of types of them.

(But no - yours doesn't really look like the pics that some people have posted of 'Cambrian Green' stones I don't think).
I'm not sure I'll ever be certain what this stone is aside from amazing... I'd like to get a couple more of them, you know, for fun..
 
Ah is that his website...? I was going mostly off this thread: Cambrian Green - Guns.ru Talks - https://forum.guns.ru/forummessage/224/1447554.html which appears to be many of the same posts.

Perhaps then this is a distinction that a lot of people don't bother making. Though my stone is sufficiently different from regular Idwals, including 'Grecians', into making me think it must be a CF. Mine doesn't really have spots, but it is very surely the same kind of thing as his one below. It's a different kind of green to normal Idwals too.


View attachment 1469322


Got any pictures of your stone?
Stones can vary by quite a lot in appearance and still be the same kind of stone so I wouldn't dismiss a stone without them inclusions as necessarily being a different stone. They are not everywhere and throughout my example.

The inclusions are why I asked about the brown spot in this stone of yours...


1654804008146.png




I do wonder if it is not a match to the others?

For some reason this stone photographs as more of a grey when in person it is more green.

This is what the inclusions look like on the side of my stone...

https://flic.kr/p/
 
Stones can vary by quite a lot in appearance and still be the same kind of stone so I wouldn't dismiss a stone without them inclusions as necessarily being a different stone. They are not everywhere and throughout my example.

The inclusions are why I asked about the brown spot in this stone of yours...


View attachment 1469605



I do wonder if it is not a match to the others?

For some reason this stone photographs as more of a grey when in person it is more green.

This is what the inclusions look like on the side of my stone...

https://flic.kr/p/


Ah I might not have been clear - my green stone I posted in the first post does have the same kind of dark lines as oldTor's stone. They're just less pronounced and probably not that easy to see in my pics. I'm pretty certain it's the same kind of stone as his one. And also on one side had a couple of the little bubbles which is why I thought Idwal initially. It just doesn't have spots in the same way some of the other 'Cambrian Green' stones do in that thread.

My little milk bottle shaped mystery stone is something else entirely. Though god knows what!

Your one does look like some kind of Idwal to me(?) Are the brown spots pyrite, or something else do you reckon...?
 
Ah I might not have been clear - my green stone I posted in the first post does have the same kind of dark lines as oldTor's stone. They're just less pronounced and probably not that easy to see in my pics. I'm pretty certain it's the same kind of stone as his one. And also on one side had a couple of the little bubbles which is why I thought Idwal initially. It just doesn't have spots in the same way some of the other 'Cambrian Green' stones do in that thread.

My little milk bottle shaped mystery stone is something else entirely. Though god knows what!

Your one does look like some kind of Idwal to me(?) Are the brown spots pyrite, or something else do you reckon...?
I don't think it is pyrit but I could be wrong. They are odd.
 
Top Bottom