GeologyRocks

Hi, just a brief trawl of the net led me to this:

 http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=395548&page=3

which mentions this region in Snowdonia:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carneddau

If I have time, I'll carry on looking later and update if I find anything else. 

Thankyou for the reply. There are a large number of sites furnishing honestones in Wales, but sometimes I have trouble matching the site to the type of stone and other times I have trouble matching a stone to the site.

 Locations where I know the origin and the type of stone are:

Aberllefenni Slate & Slab Mine provides slate for Inigo Jones & Co. to make hones,

Corris provided slate for Richard Williams & Co. to make different types of hone,

Llyn Ogwen was the source of the Idwal Oilstone,

Melynllyn Yellow Lake Hone Quarry source of the Yellow Lakes Oilstone,

 Talacre & Gwespyr Stone Quarries made hones from fine grained sandstone,

Areas I know had honestone quarries, but where I am uncertain as to the nature of the stone are:

Bedgellert, some sort of Oilstone

Glyder Fawr, a supposedly excellent stone that was exported to London,

Penrhyn Slate Quarries, which I mentioned in my first post.

Moel Berfedd,

Moel Siabod,

And finally, stones that I am aware of, but do not know the location where they were sourced:

Cutler's Green Hone this was mentioned by Mr. Richard Knight in the catalogue of hones he authored which became the basis for the majority of subsequent encyclopedia entries on honestones. Knight mentioned that it came from Snowdon, but I think he referred to the area as a whole, ie what we now call Snowdonia, as opposed to Mount Snowdon, which is what a lot of subsequent authors seem to have inferred from his work.

Welsh Clearing Slate, a soft hone-slate which was always cut in a circular form. Mainly used by curriers.

Stones that I am uncertain of both their origins and nature would be the cream coloured stone I mentioned in my initial post (although I am very interested in this one, if anyone has even the faintest idea where stone like this would have occurred please let me know), and also a Novaculite of Kirwan which was found near Llyn Idwal. I think that this may have been the Idwal Stone, which is actually found in a quarry on one side of Llyn Ogwen; but because it is called Idwal Stone many authors give the location simply as "near Llyn Idwal."

Kindest regards,

Alex

Hi

I posted the bladeforums comment mentioned above. The stone to which I refer is indeed from the vicinity of Melynllyn in the Carneddau in North Wales. Older Ordinance Survey maps of the area indicate a "Honestone Quarry" near Melynllyn, though this may be absent from more recent editions.

My grandfather owned such a stone and it was obviously commercially produced. When this stone came into my possession, my father investigated the site indicated on the OS map and found very similar material there. I'm not a geologist, but it seems to be a rather tough form of pale blue-green slate of very fine grain structure, which does not cleave like the purple roofing slate quarried near Bethesda and Llanberis.

It makes an excellent sharpening stone, giving a highly polished finish to the edge and can even put a fine edge on extremely hard Japanese laminated kiridashi (marking knives) and straight razors.

 Sadly, though, I have never come across the cream-coloured stones which you seek. If I find out more, I will post it here.

best wishes

Geoff Roberts