Belgian Blue Whetstone

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Curmudgeon said:
Is that real? I mean: is that actually a BB? Where did you get it? My understanding is that the BB has been used as roof slates and sidewalks, but I've never heard of anyone who repurposed one into a sharpening stone.
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Belgian Blue, Arduin, Belgian Hardstone, all names for the sae stuff...
 
In hindsight, when I was still climbing in the Ardennes I should have put some rocks in my bag. Plenty of the climbing areas are actually old quarries. You're bound to find some decent sharpening stones just laying around for free.
 
I suppose not all BB is equal, some is building material, some is sharpening stone material...

It's fairly abundant in use in the Benelux, construction work, fancy facade work, door sills, table tops, kitchen counters, kitchen sinks, cemetary slabs....
 
MarcelNL said:
I may have overdone it;

View attachment 221860
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I’m not sure if this post was meant as a joke, because obviously this isn’t a BBW. It is a type of stone mined in Belgium commonly called ‘blue stone’ and used in construction, door sills, window sills, kitchen working surfaces etc. You could probably sharpen a knife on it, but these stones are pretty hard, have an uneven texture and don’t contain garnets. Just wanted to point this out to avoid confusion.
 
PineWood said:
I’m not sure if this post was meant as a joke, because obviously this isn’t a BBW. It is a type of stone mined in Belgium commonly called ‘blue stone’ and used in construction, door sills, window sills, kitchen working surfaces etc. You could probably sharpen a knife on it, but these stones are pretty hard, have an uneven texture and don’t contain garnets. Just wanted to point this out to avoid confusion.
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it absolutely was a joke
 
Just got one myself, looking forward to try it


20230127_185747.jpg
 
I just got my BBW yesterday. I raised the mud with a slurry stone and touched up a B#2 knife. The first impressions is that it’s finer than what I was expecting, definitely finer than the naniwa professional 3000 and perhaps even finer than the Morihei 4000. It doesn’t seem to raise a noticeable burr which probably is exactly what I need for my finisher. The mud is beautiful and the sharpening feel is pleasant. I need to do more testing.
 
Is the AC website the best place to buy these? It's there a lot of variation between individual stones, and any way to know what they are before you buy?

I'm specifically looking for a large stone and I think they do one in 300x100mm
 
Chasingsharpness said:
Is the AC website the best place to buy these? It's there a lot of variation between individual stones, and any way to know what they are before you buy?

I'm specifically looking for a large stone and I think they do one in 300x100mm
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BB is a by-product from yellow Coticule mining. As far as I know only one mine is open. New stones all come from the same mine. All depends on how many middle men you want to be involved and have their share.
 
Benuser said:
BB is a by-product from yellow Coticule mining. As far as I know only one mine is open. New stones all come from the same mine. All depends on how many middle men you want to be involved and have their share.
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I get the impression the yellow coticule is the sideline, and the BB is the main product from the mine. Not for whetstones though. The bulk of material coming out of the hole is used for building materials, etc. I don't know what percentage of profit is generated by making sharpening stones, but I think it is a lot less.
 
Legion74 said:
I get the impression the yellow coticule is the sideline, and the BB is the main product from the mine. Not for whetstones though. The bulk of material coming out of the hole is used for building materials, etc. I don't know what percentage of profit is generated by making sharpening stones, but I think it is a lot less.
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There's a lot of slate mining in Belgium, but that slate is useless as a sharpening stone as it misses the garnets.
 
Is the BBW good as a sharpening stone? Can it put an edge on a semi-dull knife or touch up an edge between full sharpenings on a 1k stone?
 
Slate? Belgian Blue is not slate IMO. From what i read it's a Calcite stone, and it's definitely different than slate and indeed much (probably most) of it goes into building material, kitchen worktops and window sills etc.
 
MarcelNL said:
Slate? Belgian Blue is not slate IMO. From what i read it's a Calcite stone, and it's definitely different than slate and indeed much (probably most) of it goes into building material, kitchen worktops and window sills etc.
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What you see being used so abundantly in Belgium is certainly slate.
 
are we talking about 'Arduin' aka belgian blue ? The stuff I used the diamond blade on the angle grinder to cut to size to fit it in the downstairs toilet? Or am I wrong and is the stone you all refer to something completely different?

20230807_121323.jpg
 
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