OT:(any remaining) slate mines in PA?

[stephen thomas]

When i was occasionally building tooling, parts, small machines and woodwork for a custom pool table builder starting early 1980's, at one point i tagged along to Pen Argyl when he went to pick up 3 sets of pool table slates. They were not ready for him afterall, so i got to nose around everywhere in the shops and around the pit for the day while we waited for his order to be processed. The final operation after the sets were matched on the hone, was to hand saw and float the pockets. I was thrilled to find such a resource, and began periodically ordering small quantities of custom cut and honed slate for architectural projects. It was amazingly cost effective up until my last order, probably 10 or a dozen years ago. A couple years ago i could still get them on the phone and we reminisced about the industry a bit. Now they seem gone. Or at least with the modern 'net i can no longer find a current operating quarry or PA slate broker in PA.

The company i used to call was Pyramid, which was the rump end of a trust/advertising/educational resource/broker for close to 100 slate quarries at the time it was formed in the early 1900's. Down to i think 5 or a half dozen & fading by the 1980's. Currently i can't seem to find an operating quarry in PA. Open to NY quarries (they have better slate ) but looking for small enough to still appreciate & do small orders cheaply. Do any such still exist? (I've probably covered and called the obvious options so if you do not have personal familiarity lets not waste bandwidth.) An awful lot online are strictly shingle producers/sellers, and many of those are simply jobber/suppliers at best, or contractors.

 

[boslab]

Not of help but interesting, I watched a slate documentary a good while back, the slate over here in wales is the same slate bed, it’s continuous under the Atlantic and back up in the US and canada, perhaps search further afield
Mark

 

[stephen thomas]

Mark-
Love that area!
Though it was interesting to travel in bright green, almost tropical countryside in technicolor; then enter the tunnel & come out the top to see the world had all gone black & white. I have some photos of slate tips, but...they look like slate tips....




smt

 

[boslab]

Wales is a funny place full of equally odd people speaking an even stranger language ( interesting welsh and Hebrew use the same syntax, backwards to the rest of language, tall is the man lol, talks to himself mark thinks)
An ancient language, an ancient people, wales was wales before England ever existed I suppose .
And it’s bloody wet, I think if evolution was actually happening we would have webbed feet and gills.
Mark

 

[nbk31hk]

Not of help but interesting, I watched a slate documentary a good while back, the slate over here in wales is the same slate bed, it’s continuous under the Atlantic and back up in the US and canada, perhaps search further afield
Mark

What’s the name of the documentary? Thanks Aaron

 

[EmGo]

odd people speaking an even stranger language

Whoever figured out your spelling rules had a perverted sense of humour

 

[john.k]

Welsh slate travelled the globe as ballast in sailing ships ,sold for a profit in Australia or Argentina or South Africa ,and the ship loaded with wheat or wool or canned meat back to UK ......anyhoo,plenty of old houses here roofed with welsh slate.....my great grandfathers house which he built in the 1880s had slate everywhere .....he was ships pilot ,and shipping agent .

 

[memphisjed]

I got some made by Virginia slate out of North Carolina a long time ago. It looks like they are now a sub sub quarry of Vermont slate.
I just had a thick non-honed shape cut and drilled for a statue repair. No statement of quality- it was slate cut to close enough for me to not even check how close.

 

[rklopp]

Welsh slate travelled the globe as ballast in sailing ships ,sold for a profit in Australia or Argentina or South Africa ,and the ship loaded with wheat or wool or canned meat back to UK ......anyhoo,plenty of old houses here roofed with welsh slate.....my great grandfathers house which he built in the 1880s had slate everywhere .....he was ships pilot ,and shipping agent .

Lot of older houses in SE Pennsylvania had slate roofs, slate siding, and slate sidewalks out front. And of course the schools were full of slate blackboards.

 

[Bill D]

In San Francisco many of the gold rush streets were paved with Belgian cobble stones.
BilL D

 

[stephen thomas]

To follow up:

As it turns out, the former Penn Big Bed Slate Company is still in operation.

Home

PENN SLATE Your source to Pennsylvania slate. Learn more Mining Quality Slate The state of Pennsylvania has a rich history with slate. Penn Slate prides itself in continuing this tradition and mining beautiful Pennsylvania slate to make accessible for our customers. Slate is often the most...

pennslate.com

Unfortunately for me, the price structure has turned upside down, and PA slate is now more expensive than VT slate (by ft^2) for the materials i am searching. Nonetheless, good to see it is still available, manufactured to whatever is necessary for architectural slate.

Dally Slate, where i spent a day and the pool table slates came from; then later ordered architectural slate (stools/sills/copings/thresholds, small table tops, slabs to make sinks in place, etc) is closed. There seems to be some effort to re-purpose it as a museum.

Williams is "supposed to be" open, but no one ever answers the phone, nor responds to email:

Williams and Sons Slate and Tile

Capozzolo Brothers Slate Co seems to be down to selling gift items and chotchkes; but based on website, i have not called yet to verify.

FOUNDER | CAPOZZOLO BROTHERS SLATE COMPANY

As mentioned, Pyramid Supply that used to be the umbrella organization for some hundred+ slate quarries, seems to be defunct.

For my project VT slate is under strong consideration.
I would not rule out PA slate at comparable pricing but have not found it.

smt

 

[boslab]

Whoever figured out your spelling rules had a perverted sense of humour

I think I said it somewhere, welsh and Hebrew are or have the exact same syntax and structure , if you said the man fell down in Hebrew and welsh it’s down fell the man , then I say llanfairpwllgwingedlantasilio…. Etc
That’s one word ( LAN FIRE POOLCH) for short.
Snooker table and pool table manufacturers are your best shot for slab stock, they usually have old tables and reject slabs ( I bought some from Riley over here once, quite cheap but I think it was Canadian Italian or Chinese .
Mark

 

[eKretz]

I know some guys using some of the VT slate for razor sharpening. Other than that I have no exposure. And Stephen, OT tag?!

 

[stephen thomas]

And Stephen, OT tag?!

Touche!

I guess i think manufacturing and machining are...manufacturing and machining!

The first time i saw decent size planers (3' x 8'-ish?) working in a row, was in a slate quarry.
& then they had loads of other cool equipment. Mortise gears running a lot of it. As well as a modern hone + huge modern diamond saws.

smt

 

[eKretz]

Touche!

I guess i think manufacturing and machining are...manufacturing and machining!

The first time i saw decent size planers (3' x 8'-ish?) working in a row, was in a slate quarry.
& then they had loads of other cool equipment. Mortise gears running a lot of it. As well as a modern hone + huge modern diamond saws.

smt

I was under the impression that threads were supposed to be *machining* related or OT tagged, but no worries. I suppose machining slate is a thing, though, too - although not really what you were asking about. Still an interesting subject, either way.

 

[???]

I ran a Breton 5 axis in an automotive tool room, apparently they are a big player in machining stone etc. Probably worse than machining graphite electrodes with regards to wear of tooling and the machine.