La Pyrénées & BBW Combo

Not a great pic, sorry about the clutter on my bench. I'm over-run with Tomo Naguras at the moment.
But - this is quite an interesting stone. If my testing plays out well like its been going so far, this French stone may prove be a good contender as a choice natural bevel setter.

I read on some site once that they're too coarse for razors. I don't find that to be true.
The location of that 'comment' is highly suspect, so far as accuracy and integrity are concerned so... well, you get the idea.
I've been working a Wester's on it for a while and I have not been babying it at all.
Actually - I'm really pushing it.
So far - I see no problems using this stone with razors.
None. Nada. Zippo, Naught, Null - Zero.

The top is a piece of Pierre des Pyrénées from France. Alleged to be 1.2k, & I'm not challenging that at the moment.
Originally - with the rough cut surface I was thinking lower, but after a fast lapping and some inspection under 10x magnification - 1-2k seems plausible as a reference.
Not as fast as a Chosera, but the striae seem to be, visually, very similar in width. Depth, I don't know - I suspect shallower but that's just a guess.
It's supposed to be a slate/sandstone mix. It's fairly hard but not too hard to lap easily enough. it does not seem to absorb much water.

It's backed with a piece of BBW.

Anyway - I haven't read a lot about this stone and I thought some members here might be interested.
This is a small one, about 100x50 mm. Each side is about 7-8 mm thick.

Do you slurry the stone and if so, with what? If not, why?

Didn't slurry it, just used water.
I want to see what the stone does as-is for now.

Nice!

I was curious if these stones would be good for razors & was going to pick one up myself to see....I'll be interested to hear your impressions of the stone as you begin to use it!

Seems to be free of any inclusions, and it also seems to be very consistent.
Not fast - not slow either. Sort of in the middle, which can be a good thing.
It leaves an interesting polish too; higher than I would have expected.

What I expected was a somehwat gritty stone, with a lot of disparity in the scratch pattern - I'm not seeing or feeling that at all so I'm sorta surprised. Now I wish I picked up a larger piece. Getting a bevel set on a 4 x 1" stone will be an annoyingly long process.

I've always heard that these stones were better for knives, so I've avoided picking one up. But then again, that was a two-sided Pyrenees stone, not BBW. Thanks for trying one and for the review.

Yeah you need to dispose of some of those naguras.

Looks/sounds like it might be a decent tool for lower range work.

Brooksie - did you PM me? My inbox is wonky, resend if you did.
Something is up - I notified a Mod about it.
If not - then never mind.

yeah - some Tomos need to go. I have doubles/triples on several Tomos now.
It's taken months to get that box of rocks sorted out.

Anyway - I could be totally off here, so I'm going cautiously.
The Ardennes site mentions use with razors in one spot but that's it.
So far so good though. Very interesting feedback too.
I'm going to take it for another spin later I think. I may slurry it with a DMT.
Not my choice of tools but there is no other choice really. This stone is too small for me to cut a piece off of it.
I may see if one of my super hard Tomo Naguras can kick up some slurry without compromising it. Might work.

PM sent, hopefully it works

Brooksie967 said:

PM sent, hopefully it works

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Not working - I've notified a Mod about it. Something is up.

Thank you for that.
I'll look at your thread later on.

Sweet. I was considering one of these a while ago, I think it was back when Cretans were the belle of the natural stone bevel setting ball. I sort of forgot about these ... I like the sound of a medium speed bevel setter the leaves a "mellow" scratch pattern. I bet an eight incher would be real nice. Ardennes has the 50 x 200 listed for 48euro (65usd, today), not bad for a nice sized bevel setter, a BBW, and a wood box. I wonder if I'd be able to saw an inch off to make a slurry stone without damaging the La Pyennese? (I know I can slice through BBW like butta with a hack saw and some H2O).

I think you can cut it easily.
But - that's an assumption based on having cut a lot of stone in my life. Seems like it would go well.


I want to test this extensively before getting a bigger one though.
The fact that it's part sandstone worries me - so far, no issues though.

I was testing with a ripped up ebay blade. Edge was full of chipping.
I just cleaned that blade up with a 1k C and now I'll resume testing.
I'll employ slurry this time.
I want to check the edge at higher magnification first, and then again after.

If all goes well - I'll look into a larger chunk. Right now I'm still being cautious.

Is the worry with sandstone that it will degrade over time?

From holding water and breaking down, along with inclusions and disparity in particle size.

Gamma said:

From holding water and breaking down, along with inclusions and disparity in particle size.

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That makes sense, thanks.

Thanks Gamma, intersting stone. I've not felt the need to upgrade from my King 1k but it would be nice to pick up a natural in that area along the way, I'll stay tuned.

The two sided version I'd forgotten about, I use old synthetic oil stones for rough work on tools and knives but a natural stone in the 200-300 grit range is tempting.

Believe it or not, I just ordered one of these yesterday (50x150), and then I see this thread today. Keep on posting about it.

Oh, now that's really interesting - thanks from me for your research too, Gamma.

I've been pondering a 200x60 BBW for a while, and for only a little more I could get one with a Pyrénées on the back.

What grit of wet-and-dry sandpaper would you recommend for lapping this stone?