French stone ID?

[MrCrispy]

Hope everyone is well.

A French stone rode along with a razor I purchased. I thought it would be an odd one based on the heavy use all over it, but I wanted the razor. I lapped it for kicks, and it produced an ungodly amount of purple creamy slurry like plum sorbet. Is this a Le Lune stone?

Since it was soft I jumped grits from 80>220>400>600 and when I was watching the patterns immerge in the stone during the 800 I realized I had no idea how fine to go...and you guys might know the stone type. I expected it was too flawed to save anything so just went at it.

Here it is as advertised​

and some wet pictures in the California sun, pix sharpened but no color adjust except the close up of the inclusions where I bumped contrast, brightness to highlight patterns.
​

There are green inclusions with white flecks, and fine white lines occasionally lacing through the stone

Should I continue polishing it to a higher grit? I was going to bevel the edges too.
Thoughts?

Chris

 

[kcb5150]

La lorraine maybe

 

[MrCrispy]

I meant to note the size: 4 7/16" L x 1 11/16" W and it was at least 1" thick as I recovered 5/8 so far

 

[David]

It looks Lorraine.

 

[Alum of Potash]

With the dips, it looks like it might have been used laterally for gouges. Doesn't look like a Lune stone to me in any case.

 

[stone and strop]

La Lorraine.

 

[MrCrispy]

Thanks for the pointer to the La Lorraine. Are the inclusions something I should avoid/worry about when using the stone? It's hard to imagine they are the same hardness as one moves across the surface.

 

[kcb5150]

Not really, they tend to be really soft in those

 

[stone and strop]

If it can be felt with the soft ball of the finger I would be careful.
Try it with a knife first or sacrificial razor to see if it can be felt or heard when going across it. If you have any magnification you will see an errant scratch from it or micro chip.
If all is good...

 

[kcb5150]

I have seen the issues more with orange inclusions.

 

[MrCrispy]

Thanks, I will try with a practice blade and have a look. Are these kinds of inclusions specific to the Lorraine stone, or are they present in the other French stones too? I have been studying some threads and I get the impression that the Lorraine is soft like a coticule and the Lune is more hard like slate? I have another purple one that is VERY hard without inclusions. Is there a thread/guide to digging in deeper on old French stones, or do folks enjoy 'what is this?' threads...

 

[David]

Soft is a relative term when it comes to Coticules. Many are very soft but a lot are very hard and some are extremely hard. The Lorraine’s and Lunes are both fairly soft stones from my experience. Lorraine’s perform much like a yellow Coticule, Lunes leave a similar scratch pattern as Coticules but tend to be more aggressive.

 

[SliceOfLife]

French hones fall in two camps.

La Lunes

Other

La Lunes are usually Id'ed because they often have remaining side stamps, they have a VERY distinct sawmark, cut, and beveling on the edges. The stone itself looks like many others (and there are a couple different types under the La Lune label, making it more complicated), but the most common basically looks like a purple BBW in color with metallic glittery flecks and no BBW speckles.

Everything else french is rarely ID'ed here. Just not common enough outside of france for people to really know them. The second most common stone out of France after La Lunes are Belgian coticules. France has a TON of coticules in it.

 

[MrCrispy]

Well, there is no better way to tell I suppose than try it them out. I didn't realize that there were such a wide variety of grades and characteristics of purple swirled stone, but I suppose it makes sense. As a retired (test) engineer I struggle that there isnt a test that can better grade stones. /shrug. Black box testing it is! -Chris