What some call Vosgienne - Show off your rock

Sebastian requested pictures of my "Brown" stone. As far as I know there's no real confirmation as to exactly where these were mined, but lots of people refer to them as Vosgienne or Pierre La Lune stones when they are lucky enough to have one that came with a label. Often they have wide chamfers and like Thuris have one unlapped side.

I know a fair number of members have at least one, but I thought it would be good to have a running photo album as has been done with coticules, JNats, and Thuris.

The top one I got from Sham a few years back.. It is a better finisher and is at least on par with my thuringians on water, but I can use it with soapy water so perhaps that helps. The bottom one I bought as part of an eBay lot thinking it was BBW, but as both sides are lapped on one side you can see the raw cuts and their similarities, so I was fortunate on that one, as it's definitely not BBW.
Enjoy

Thanks for posting those. Color balance needs adjustment on the last ones.

Beware of imitations. This one may well be a piece of Welsh tombstone...

Hmm... maybe the one in the middle?

Thing is, I've never seen a Lune stone with green inclusions.

What I got mine it was covered all over every which way with hundreds of razor breadknifes. The back end still is. If they were willing to abuse a hone this great, I would like to know what they considered sacred....

Keep em coming, nice stones folks.

I have a stamped lune with a green inclusion...

I would like to know who can confirm the country of purchase, what i find most intetesting that all two stones i got were sold from US. They often appear in older Barber lots, either in different type of stones or with razors and stones...

I personally never found one of those beeing sold in france.....

Here is a comparison of some "special Stones", the big one on the buttom and the small on the right are "La Lune" Stones, one labelled the big one unlabelled. Its the same material and near the same performance. Lets leave them out of this thread....




These are the two "supposed to be" Vosgienne Stones with a certain pattern and quite a bit difference in color and appearance of the green colors. One really has something like a layering, the other one just owns about 3 of the round blotches in green....both stones are very fine (estimated around 15k)



And here is another one (the second from the right side) it was sold like the Celebrated Water Hones in a Wooden Box. Grit estimation again around 15k used with oil. There is a certain pattern but much much finer nearly not well visible, the material is very homogenious the color tend to move into violet, it also had a small green blotch....it was sold as a BBW but it isnt ;-)



All stones have some smaller darker black/green inclusions visible when used with a 20x or 30x magnification appearing like dark round holes or particles. There not really holes, because its closed material. In the beginning i tried to use a needle and tested if there small holes.....

The second from left, some smaller green inclusion areas or points. Clearly visible thicker saw marks....

The first from left and the first i got, bigger greener patches and layering...somtimes it looks like the green color was sprayed on the stone. A bigger glassy/Quartz like green vein from the side...this one show some older comparable saw marks which are badly visible but comparable to the ones shown before. I will add some comparison shots of the saw marks....

daylight shot:




Sidehot:


Detail of inclusions:

So you're saying that Vosgienne and La Lune stones come from different sources? How confident are you of this?

gumbo said:

So you're saying that Vosgienne and La Lune stones come from different sources? How confident are you of this?

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Im not confident on anything!! I mentioned it several times on different boards. Actually there is no evidence on the origin of the "La Lune" and "Special Stones" maketed by FGBG or from the retailer Manufrance, nor is there any evidence that the Vosgienne stones come from the Vosges. All information given from anybody was just a statement they come from there, but not a small piece of anything where this information or the relation to it came from. So for me its like nothing.....

I tend to say its a good chance that the Quarries named in the Ads and pricelists of FGBC could also be the source where the Lunes & Specialstones can come from, but actualy nobody revealed the stones or either a quarry....

Concerning the Vosgienne Stones i only can take the information i got on several users or from their information, thats why i also asked where the stones have been bought. To write it here again, none of the stones i bought have been bought in France! They regularly appear in US in Barber Lots mostly in smaller sizes, i only know one "example" which was in a 8inch size. In the difference to the stones of FGBC which seem to appear very regularly in France on the market, sometimes in UK (which could be just resellers bought stones in France)....

These are my personal findings i made over the past 2 years....

Didn’t you pick up one such stone from a family that had owned a garment factory in Saint-Dié?

My recollection from those F.G.B.C. mines you listed once is that they were mostly located in the Moselle region of France, further north than the Vosges mountains, closer to the Ardennes.

The town of Lunéville, if that’s a contender, is in the département de Meurthe et Moselle, not in the Vosges mountains or the département des Vosges. Although it's not far away from the Vosges mountains, relatively speaking, Lunéville is more in the vicinity of the city of Nancy.

Alum of Potash said:

Didn’t you pick up one such stone from a family that had owned a garment factory in Saint-Dié?

My recollection from those F.G.B.C. mines you listed once is that they were mostly located in the Moselle region of France, further north than the Vosges mountains, closer to the Ardennes.

The town of Lunéville, if that’s a contender, is in the département des Vosges, but not in the Vosges mountains proper. Lunéville is not far from the city of Nancy.

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Yeah the combinaison stone from FGBC (Combinaison/La Lune) was from a fabric in St. Die, also the Big La Lune stone came from a town in the Vosges....i can add the quarries named if this is from interest....

Okay, so you're saying that the brown ones with green splotchy areas all came from US sources, and that a possible distinction might be made there, right?

La Nouvelle, La Voûte, La Parisienne (Gare Mervilller-Vacqueville)

Neufmaison, La Boulaye (Gare Pexonne)

Bréménil-Bas, Bréménil-Haut, La Parisienne (Gare Bardonviller)

That was taken from an old letter....

Alum of Potash said:

Okay, so you're saying that the brown ones with green splotchy areas all came from US sources, and that a possible distinction might be made there, right?

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Yeah thats actually what i will try in future. Get more information from members of the boards where they have bought these type of stones. Just to know if the origin of the buy was in US or probably France or elsewhere....

This doesnt mean that they then have to come from US....

I have another one which was bought in Germany in a Lot with a French Slate (Alan you know that one) i will also post pictures here, but i think this one is another type of stone....

Doorsch said:

La Nouvelle, La Voûte, La Parisienne (Gare Mervilller-Vacqueville)

Neufmaison, La Boulaye (Gare Pexonne)

Bréménil-Bas, Bréménil-Haut, La Parisienne (Gare Bardonviller)

That was taken from an old letter....

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I checked the train stations referred to there, and they all appear to be in the département de Meurthe-et-Moselle and not in the département des Vosges. However, the last one, Badonviller, not Bardonviller as given, is located at the start of the Vosges mountain range and the others are in the same general vicinity, close to the start of the Vosges mountains, and approaching Baccarat. Definitely doable from Saint-Dié, where I spend a lot of time. Apparently, there was a spur from the train line between Lunéville and Saint-Dié that passed through all these villages from 1881 to 1939, taking passengers and freight, and then only freight to 1989. The regional passenger train from Nancy to Saint-Dié still stops at Lunéville and at Baccarat.

Thanks for the addition Alan!!

As mentioned here is the last one i can show which could fit in the Term of a Vosgienne....but as mentioned its another "Monster".....it has a more brownish/bronze look, it has some red and green inclusions and its also very fine when used with oil or glycerin....

Actually Sharpchef has it for testing, i will also ask him if he can share some of his findings concerning this stone....





Slurry turns out reddish brown:


Daylight shot:


Green veins: