Here's something fun...

[Alum of Potash]

Very nice story. Sort of reminds me of when I realized that the patio of my folks' old vacation home in Cape Cod was paved with Vermont slate...

 

[cotedupy]

Maybe not usually, but if you read G&H the entire house and barn was built of CF Stone on the quarry property.
View attachment 1539221

Yep indeed! Though I think almost more of a cottage industry in the local area, rather than the scale of masonry quarrying in N Wales. Tbh I imagine an awful lot of old houses in Leicestershire / Nottinghamshire are probably built out of Welsh stone.

 

[Legion]

Yep indeed! Though I think almost more of a cottage industry in the local area, rather than the scale of masonry quarrying in N Wales. Tbh I imagine an awful lot of old houses in Leicestershire / Nottinghamshire are probably built out of Welsh stone.

Literally a cottage industry.

 

[Steve56]

… including extensively to the US

Yeah, that makes me wonder about some of the ‘New England’ purple slates.

 

[Wid]

Yeah, that makes me wonder about some of the ‘New England’ purple slates.

I have a piece of purple slate that was construction salvage from the New England area. It’s a fairly nice stone, a good 10K I’d compare it to.

 

[cotedupy]

Yeah, that makes me wonder about some of the ‘New England’ purple slates.

I have a piece of purple slate that was construction salvage from the New England area. It’s a fairly nice stone, a good 10K I’d compare it to.

That's an interesting idea, very possible that your stone Rick may be more well travelled than it first appeared.

I think US slate quarrying really started kicking off around the 1820s/30s (don't quote me on that tho), so before then I believe you're probably looking at Wales, Germany and perhaps France being the principal suppliers.

 

[Bowmaker]

Here’s a closer pic of the reason why, even from across the garden and before I’d felt the stone, I was pretty certain it was novaculite:

View attachment 1539088


While the fissile flakiness or cleavage is something that happens with slates too, these parts I’ve circled don’t really. It’s called

Here’s a closer pic of the reason why, even from across the garden and before I’d felt the stone, I was pretty certain it was novaculite:

View attachment 1539088


While the fissile flakiness or cleavage is something that happens with slates too, these parts I’ve circled don’t really. It’s called conchoidal fracture
and is quite a distinctive break character of very hard or glassy stones; cherts, novaculites, obsidian &c.

The shape is elliptical or semi-circular, the word ‘conchoid’ coming from the Ancient Greek for mussels. And exactly the same as what people sometimes now call ‘scalloping’ on Hard Arks that have been glued into the box and then forcibly removed leaving part of the stone still attached, and a bivalve-shaped hole on the underside.

Was it mined for tools in the stone age? Here our stone age went really late and the natives didn't miss any sources. They knew about heat treating also. I know Dan's has helped with heat treating research. I have often wondered what effect it would have on hones.

 

[cotedupy]

Was it mined for tools in the stone age? Here our stone age went really late and the natives didn't miss any sources. They knew about heat treating also. I know Dan's has helped with heat treating research. I have often wondered what effect it would have on hones.

Hmm, good q... I don't actually know if it was used for stone age tools in the UK. It wouldn't surprise me, though I've not seen it mentioned though I don't think.

Probably more likely in Charnwood than Snowdon I imagine, as it's a somewhat more hospitable area of the country to live in!

 

[cotedupy]

Surly there must be more of it close by, even if it is not sourced in the immediate vicinity.

It’s almost like you were writing the script for this...

I was in a pub in a nearby town over the weekend and the entire floor in one of the rooms was made out of it. Bit difficult to tell from this pic cos it’s inside and at night, but this is all a similar green-grey novaculite I think.

I still assume it must be Welsh, rather than local. But perhaps less certain now...

 

[Empire straights]

Was it mined for tools in the stone age? Here our stone age went really late and the natives didn't miss any sources. They knew about heat treating also. I know Dan's has helped with heat treating research. I have often wondered what effect it would have on hones.

Doesn't heat treating novaculite make it fragile? At least at the temp you'd usually use to temper something? I think novaculite was heated, same as flint and obsidian to make it fracture more readily at the faults? Very interesting topic. I've thought about learning Knapping to be able to make flint, obsidian, and novaculite knives and arrowheads because they are so much harder than steel and will hold a surgical edge after much use. The downside(for me) is I'll have a blade that I can never hone and once the edge is ruined the knife becomes useless aside maybe a Christmas tree decoration or something else ridiculous. I've heard that lots of scalpels now days are made from ground obsidian because it will get so much more sharp than steel scalpels and it holds that sharpness all the way through a 6 hour surgery. Bacteria doesn't like to build up on glass as readily, I believe, as well. I really find this fascinating and I think this approach to using less traditional minerals for construction of specialized tools is brilliant and was more along the line of thinking of inventors during our forefathers generations. Brilliant.

 

[Empire straights]

I have a piece of purple slate that was construction salvage from the New England area. It’s a fairly nice stone, a good 10K I’d compare it to.

View attachment 1539449

That may have been imported from Wales. That green spot looks identical to a piece of welsh slate I have.

 

[Empire straights]

It’s almost like you were writing the script for this...

I was in a pub in a nearby town over the weekend and the entire floor in one of the rooms was made out of it. Bit difficult to tell from this pic cos it’s inside and at night, but this is all a similar green-grey novaculite I think.

I still assume it must be Welsh, rather than local. But perhaps less certain now...

View attachment 1541406

That looks very much like several llyn Idwals I have. Very, very much.

 

[rideon66]

It’s almost like you were writing the script for this...

I was in a pub in a nearby town over the weekend and the entire floor in one of the rooms was made out of it. Bit difficult to tell from this pic cos it’s inside and at night, but this is all a similar green-grey novaculite I think.

I still assume it must be Welsh, rather than local. But perhaps less certain now...

View attachment 1541406

Oli they are going to start to notice every time you come in for drink the floor starts disappearing.

 

[cotedupy]

Oli they are going to start to notice every time you come in for drink the floor starts disappearing.

Especially as the first time I was in I spent quite a while trying to... err... 'scratch' bits of it, with coins n chisels n stuff.

They might have my picture behind the bar already tbh.

 

[Empire straights]

Oli they are going to start to notice every time you come in for drink the floor starts disappearing.

I need to start taking demo jobs in the UK just to get materials to resell. When doing demos on 100 years old houses in Louisiana I always salvaged every scrap of wood that was tossed.

 

[Steve56]

Yep indeed! Though I think almost more of a cottage industry in the local area, rather than the scale of masonry quarrying in N Wales. Tbh I imagine an awful lot of old houses in Leicestershire / Nottinghamshire are probably built out of Welsh stone.

There are images online of steps and windowsills in older houses built with slate, where they sharpened their knives and tools on them.

They might have my picture behind the bar already tbh.

‘Be on the lookout! Honer Oli, protect our floors!’

TBH, I’d like to have a chunk of that too if you have an extra, Oli.

 

[cotedupy]

There are images online of steps and windowsills in older houses built with slate, where they sharpened their knives and tools on them.



‘Be on the lookout! Honer Oli, protect our floors!’

TBH, I’d like to have a chunk of that too if you have an extra, Oli.

I will probably be hitting up some of these old UK quarries soon, so if you're up for lapping raw novaculite () I can certainly send you a coupla chunks of stuff.

 

[rideon66]

It’s almost like you were writing the script for this...

I was in a pub in a nearby town over the weekend and the entire floor in one of the rooms was made out of it. Bit difficult to tell from this pic cos it’s inside and at night, but this is all a similar green-grey novaculite I think.

I still assume it must be Welsh, rather than local. But perhaps less certain now...

View attachment 1541406

Meanwhile in Japan you can just sharpen you razors and knives on the wall.

 

[ables]

Meanwhile in Japan you can just sharpen you razors and knives on the wall.
View attachment 1557569View attachment 1557570

Dear God that's an expensive looking wall! It's like EyeSpy on there: Karasu, mizu, KITA, kan, Iromono...

They even all look flat!!! Has to be a whetstone company doorway haha

 

[GreazyThumbs]

Imma buy that house!