Silk Stone Questions

[duke762]

I'm pretty sure I have one and I named him Bob, Bob Slate. I've struggled to figure Bob out properly, and I'm not sure where most people use a Silk stone in a progression. Looking at the edge with a scope, Bob will improve a 5k edge but it doesn't compare to an 8k. I've been using Bob with Coticule slurry to touch up edges that show damage. Dilute to clear water and the apex is to stellar then off to the 8k and the rest of my progression. Bob can yield an impressive apex.

But the following questions remain.....

Where do Silk stones come from?
Are they a particularly hard slate? (Mine seems hard compared to other slates I have)
Lastly, if you have one, where in progression do you use it. I've never seen them mentioned as finishers.....

 

[Legion]

My one (which appears to be one of the wood box Salmen ones), is a rather nice finisher, particularly when used with oil. That's all I really use it for.

I guess they come from the UK, probably Wales.

 

[Gamma]

Typically hard, yes.
A lot of slate looks the same though, hard to say what is or isn't a Silk Stone without a box or label.
I found a small sample size of them to not be very consistent from example to example.

Neil Miller wrote about them long ago on another forum. Or maybe it was his website. I forget tbh.
I am sure someone has since stolen his content and posted it as their own someplace more readily findable though.

Over the years there have been many assumed Silk Stones and far fewer boxed labeled examples. Generally speaking, the owners of the boxed, labeled, confirmed Silk Stones regarded them as finishers. Not surprisingly, the owners of the assumed Silk Stones said the same thing.

They were a flavor of the day thing about 10-12 years ago, you could find them relatively regularly on Fleabay back then. There was also a typical bit of hysteria where every piece of unknown slate found in a UK auction lot just 'had' to be a Silk Stone.