My Heljestrand after honing

[SliceOfLife]

I think the "Standard" LL layout is

Blue/Yellow/Hybrid/Yellow/Blue


Obviously as it swirls and doesn't stay flat this will get mixed up and you'll see some wacky mixes... but all the LL I've owned were yellow, not hybrid in contact with blue if there was any blue present. Most are JUST hybrid and yellow. And these are including vintage hybrid stones... which may not TECHNICALLY be Les Lat, but we tend to call them that, given the presence of the hybrid. Only one I've got with hybrid/yellow/blue right now are in fact the Bakers modern stones.


We'd need a pic of the surface to take a guess... but this stone COULD be one of the yellow layers of LL with just a hint of the hybrid at the top. I'd guess probably not though... that looks more like that holographic glitter effect than actual hybrid on the surface... but really hard to tell from this angle.


Image is a French Baker stone... "Hybrid" on one face, then side view of Hybrid into yellow into blue.


As you can see this hybrid is much less glassy and more like yellow coti than typical hybrid... almost like yellow coti with hybrid coloring/patterning.

When wet it looks a little more like pure hybrid... but I assume all these stones are Coticule "scrap" that are from where veins mix up and Ardennes tosses them... and someone sells them to the baker from there. I have one or two more like this stone but they are MUCH more mixed and don't show a defined line between blue/yellow/hybrid at all... it's just a swirl/mishmash.



I did have a MUCH MUCH Cleaner example that I don't think I bought off the baker... but it was probably his stone originally.... Was 2x6" x about 1.5" with thick, very defined yellow coti on both sides and hybrid in the middle... and when I got it I'm pretty sure one of the coti sides had remnants of BBW on part... showing the B/Y/H/Y/B pattern I explained above...


I sold it before I made myself lap one of the yellow layers away to get at the hybrid.

It was my "Sandwich" coticule.

Had a second with the same layout but it was a bout and only about 1/2" thick overall. That one I actually did sand away a layer of yellow to get at the hybrid... pretty sure I sold it also.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Pics of the bout one: Coticule love... show off your rock - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/coticule-love-show-off-your-rock.184234/post-7819276

 

[Legion]

Again, not my pic. I lifted this one off a knife forum (sorry, if it's yours and you are here too.)

This one is purporting to be LL, and looks like one to me. There may be yellow between the hybrid and the blue, but it still looks like a swirly mash up.

 

[Wid]

Again, not my pic. I lifted this one off a knife forum (sorry, if it's yours and you are here too.)

This one is purporting to be LL, and looks like one to me. There may be yellow between the hybrid and the blue, but it still looks like a swirly mash up.


View attachment 1827850

Beautiful stone. Send that pic to Rob at Ardennes and he can either confirm or deny. All we really have as reference is the mine and the Henk Boos papers. Both of which say the hybrid is sandwiched by yellow coticule layers.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Maybe you should go back to 10x, @Fillifan .

 

[Eshebert]

I have this one. That I got from a French vender advertised as a LL Hybrid. Rob. Confirmed it was not a LL hybrid firm AC, and the stone was cut wrong. It has a blue glued back, and some natural blue on the hybrid face. The stone is hard as woodpecker lips but i really have no idea what it is.

 

[Gamma]

There has been a lot of 'hybridy' stone sold on fleabay as Les Lat that wasn't Les Lat and i'll leave it at that.
Small rhyme.
Over the years there have been lots of swirly stones called Les Let but some were just 'assumed' to be Les Lat. Guesses.
At the same time, there are many legit Les Lat patterns.

I remember seeing glued to slate Coticules branded as les lat. Hybrid in the middle would be cut with one or the other yellow LL side attached. the part that gets cut off, or falls off, or whatever, could get glued to something.
I do not recall seeing Les Lat BBW natural combo. Don't recall a glued hybrid combo either but to be honest I only ever cared about the hybrid side.

As far as the OPs stone goes, could be any vein. Name of the vein won't change the edge. ID'ing vintage stones is usually, at best, just guess work. When someone says 'looks like', well, most veins produced stones with lots of different looks, feels, personalities.
More importantly, but hard to tell from the dark out of focus pic - but to me the top looks like it could do with a lapping and the edges might need chamfering. I see a nick in a long edge and that can cause microchipping.v

I usually use a 1k to remove chips. I 'can' take out chips on lots of stones, and sometimes I do use different methods, but my bevel setters make quick easy and highly accurate work of chip removal. Plus, I prefer Coti edges following a 1k bevel set.

 

[alex1921]

Tom, @rideon66, knows the story about these hybrids.

 

[David]

Tom, @rideon66, knows the story about these hybrids.

 

[alex1921]

View attachment 1828799

Yup.