Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Read Edgar Allen Poe. Or H. P. Lovecraft.
BTW, did you know that Poe’s stepfather operated a shop, Allen and Poe, that made or commissioned a straight razor?
Looky what I got...
- Thread starter cotedupy
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Read Edgar Allen Poe. Or H. P. Lovecraft.
BTW, did you know that Poe’s stepfather operated a shop, Allen and Poe, that made or commissioned a straight razor?
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- #22
Studied a fair bit of Poe at uni, though I must confess I don't know HP Lovecraft. Excellent EAP / razor fact, I didn't know that either, no.
Whitman, he's your greatest writer for my money. And of course Dylan.
What range are Fiddich River stones in? Bevel setters / Pre Finishers / Finishers??
@cotedupy are these stones slates? Or a schist like a coticule? Do you know what the abrasive is them is?
They are not marble.
Probably not, but easy to check if they are calcined.
Drop of vinegar. The stone on top is marble (or something similar), the bottom one is slate.
Yeah I tried HCL on them and no effervescence.
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- #29
They’re probably shales at a guess, with a smidge of slate thrown in. Shale-slates. Abrasive will be silica - pretty much all natural stones are, with the obvious exception...
Cotis, which I don’t think are schist btw. They’re a kind of non-foliated sedimentary stone subjected to a very small amount of metamorphic influence. Kinda like Tams.
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- #30
I should probably have explained a little why I was so pleased about this new stone. And its not just cos they’re pretty and rare (though obviously that’s nice too
)...The two FR I have will finish a razor rather nicely, though they’re not ar the very top level of ultimate fineness/sharpness (arks, Thuris &c.). Perhaps more comparable to a nice coti.
What really makes them for me though is their versatility, which is a direct result of how they cut on slurry. With a raised mud the stones feel lovely in use, and are actually fast enough for good, fine kitchen knife edges. The icing on the cake is that they can bevel polish very well too, again on slurry. And my new one is quite considerably thicker than the other, so less worry about wearing it away with a diamond plate.
It’s extremely rare to find a stone that will do all three of those things to a high level. The intersection of that Venn diagram is miniscule.
That’d be a great test if you had a labelled example. The only concrete evidence we have on these is the old books which mention them, at least one of which describes them as a marble.
Finding a mystery rock, deciding its a fiddich, and saying they were not marble because that mystery rock does not react with acid doesnt really cut it for me. I’m more inclined to go with the (very limited) evidence we have.
I did not decide it was a Fiddich. This was something that came from someone one who spent time talking with Neil Miller and Henk Bos about stones and decided from the descriptions and such it was a Fiddich. I don't think the Fiddich ever had a labeled version so that probably will never happen. I think it is more likely the original description was based on the feel and look of the stone and never tested to be marble way back then. I mean would a marble sharpening stone be very practical? No. Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized calcite or dolomite. It's much too soft to cut steel. To be good for sharpening, the stone must contain layers of microcrystals that are hard enough to cut the steel, like Novaculite , which contains quartz crystals.
Not my intent to cause offence. The point I’m trying to make is that almost everything presented on this stone is just a guess at the end of the day. All this might be absolutely spot on, but without any hard evidence you can’t present any of this as fact, and it would be disingenuous to do so.
I lived by the fiddich river for 2 years and spent more hours than i care to admit hunting for this elusive stone. I never saw a single piece of rock in the river or on the bank that I could convince myself was what the forum called a fiddich.
I should add I trawled along pretty much every bit of the bank that was accesible using the old maps as a guide for areas of interest. I also scouted as many old quarries I could find. The area is mainly full of limestone and marble, and this was heavily exploited. There was also the odd bit of laminated non-marble rock.
This is an interesting subject, and something I've been thinking about, bases on the bubbly stone I posted above. I might start another thread at some point, so as not to highjack this one.
No offense taken. Just stating the info I was presented and regardless what it is called it is excellent stone. We have wondered if it couldn't be another stone from the Glanrafon area too, but this seems to be what it is being regarded as for some years now. There is no known facts right now and may never be since I don't know if a labeled one exists.
Even if you found a good stone in the river we may never know for sure.
Since you are there though I have some clues.
I did find a reference to hones or whetstones are obtained near Balvenie, on the Fiddich. 1868 Abbas Combe to Eyworth. & a reference to the same stating it had sufficient supply for the whole of ifland . 1803 The Gazetteer of Scotland Also in a later reference it states laminated marble found in the bed of the Fiddich, is formed into whetstones and hones.1901
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- #36
All of this of course is really a debate about nomenclature, because if used repeatedly in a specific sense then after a while names tend to stick, regardless of their origin or etymology.
I can tell you several facts about the two Fiddich River Stones I have, what they are in a petrological sense, and how they compare to other similar but slightly different sharpening stones. And I use that name because that's what people know them as, and they are distinguishable as such.
I personally, as I've probably said before on other threads, think it's unlikely that the stones we know as Fiddich River Stones are the same as written about in those old texts. I wouldn't 100% discount it, but since I got the first one my hunch has always been that these stones are Welsh.
But I also think that in cases where it's almost certain we'll never know one way or another - the usefulness of naming something isn't negated by potential inaccuracy.
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On an entirely unrelated note (
) here's a picture I took on Saturday of a bit of wall in someone's front garden, the stone is from the Dorothea quarry in the Nantlle Valley.
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Rock saw! Stick a brick in the hole.All of this of course is really a debate about nomenclature, because if used repeatedly in a specific sense then after a while names tend to stick, regardless of their origin or etymology.
I can tell you several facts about the two Fiddich River Stones I have, what they are in a petrological sense, and how they compare to other similar but slightly different sharpening stones. And I use that name because that's what people know them as, and they are distinguishable as such.
I personally, as I've probably said before on other threads, think it's unlikely that the stones we know as Fiddich River Stones are the same as talked about in those old texts. I wouldn't 100% discount it, but since I got the first one my hunch has always been that these stones are Welsh.
But I also think that in cases where it's almost certain we'll never know one way or another - the usefulness of naming something isn't negated by potential inaccuracy.
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On an entirely unrelated note (
View attachment 1596859
Wear a high viz vest and carry a clipboard, say you are from the council.
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- #38
Dammit David! We've been through this already... I did not go to Wales to wander about with a saw and a clipboard stealing bits of people's houses.
And anyway that was a minute or so from the path leading down to the quarry, where I got a significant amount of stone without the need to resort to such elaborate subterfuge / criminality.
Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
You’re all wrong !
Clearly what we need is a field trip to Fiddich River with me, Tom, Oli, and both Davids
And when we’re done rockhounding for the day, we can wander down to Glenfiddich, where I hear they have some decent Scotch Whiskey.
Clearly what we need is a field trip to Fiddich River with me, Tom, Oli, and both Davids
And when we’re done rockhounding for the day, we can wander down to Glenfiddich, where I hear they have some decent Scotch Whiskey.
LOL. It is a long walk from Wales up to Speyside, even if we were drunk.
Still. I'm up for it.
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