bluestone & slate

Hope this is not a duplicate - just lost one to the ether.

Please advise -
Is slate or brunstone better?
Presumably Brunstone is harder, and can't be cut with steel edge tools like slate can be?
It rather seems on the face of it that Brunstone could be less apt to sag than slate?

PS, there is NO resins in the makeup of the Brunstone in the OLDER GC'S, it's sandstone mined from sandstone rock quarries and Brunswick named it Brunstone.

Click to expand...

Does anyone know where?
This is also curious: Brunswick found it cheaper to mine a harder, more brittle rock and manufacture it into beds for pool tables, rather than re-open VT slate quarries they already owned?

I recall going to the slate mines (quarries) in Pen Argyl with a table maker during the 80's. IIRC, a set of 1" slates for an 8' table (the size he mostly built) was under $200 at the time. That was diamond honed, cut to 3 pieces, and then if he had them cut the pockets (instead of taking them back to the shop to do himself) it was a set price like a few more $$ per pocket. They had wooden templates on the wall for various size & styles, but the work was marked out with a pencil and sawn with a heavy blade fretsaw. I think he might have changed blades every couple or few pockets, though.

Does anyone know where the Brunswick quarries are in VT and does Brunswick actually still own them?

Thanks!
smt

Ssonerai said:

Hope this is not a duplicate - just lost one to the ether.

Please advise -
Is slate or brunstone better?
Presumably Brunstone is harder, and can't be cut with steel edge tools like slate can be?
It rather seems on the face of it that Brunstone could be less apt to sag than slate?



Does anyone know where?
This is also curious: Brunswick found it cheaper to mine a harder, more brittle rock and manufacture it into beds for pool tables, rather than re-open VT slate quarries they already owned?

I recall going to the slate mines (quarries) in Pen Argyl with a table maker during the 80's. IIRC, a set of 1" slates for an 8' table (the size he mostly built) was under $200 at the time. That was diamond honed, cut to 3 pieces, and then if he had them cut the pockets (instead of taking them back to the shop to do himself) it was a set price like a few more $$ per pocket. They had wooden templates on the wall for various size & styles, but the work was marked out with a pencil and sawn with a heavy blade fretsaw. I think he might have changed blades every couple or few pockets, though.

Does anyone know where the Brunswick quarries are in VT and does Brunswick actually still own them?

Thanks!
smt

Click to expand...

Brunswick hasn't quarried their own slate in a looong time. RKC probably knows exact dates.

I'd still like to hear the answers to Q's above, but here is an interesting Brunswick promotional video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k717SV6ljBQ

It's informative to compare the methods shown in the video, and some of the methods used in Pen Argyl area in the 1980's. The quarry i spent a day in watching, was still a (fairly vast) open pit. Corners were drilled to follow the best slate, about 3' diameter, and the plug pulled out. then the slate was sawed between the holes, and the men down in the pit worked from the holes to split off a thick layer of slate, which was periodically brought out on aerial cables. From there it went to a huge diamond saw for break down, and them various parts of the slab traveled to other areas of the sheds for processes that probably had not changed much in a century. They were still using metal planers for roughing a lot of the building product slabs. Hand splitters cut great stacks of shingles and flags, etc.

Blackboards and many polished products were still done on various open (very large) fixed or rotating cast iron tables with sand and water trickling down on the work.

Pool table slates were done on a (at the time) brand new diamond honing machine, in a separate building with more modern equipment for higher end products.

To be fair, a lot of the old quarries were needing to make slate slabs for architectural purposes that were much larger than pool table slate sets. The methods shown in the video for what are actually rather small slabs would not have worked except for a single purpose, mostly single size product.

But it's certainly easy to see that if Brunswick finds new quarries where they can essentially just drive around with a fork truck and lift out flat slabs of near net size product, it would save a huge amount of money and investment on the front end, and avoid all the maintenance on things like tram ways and aerial cables.

smt

I bought these 2 sets thinking that they're slate.
The question if they're slate or brunstone never came up.
He says that they're from 9' AMF tables that they replace from a college
rec.room, down somewhere in Louisiana.
Till now and another time this subject was up with a fellow conspirator and
his 10' GC 1, maybe a 2, had a lot trouble getting an end piece to level out,
took many tries to get it good. They, the mechanic's, did conclude that his
10'r was brunstone and the 1 piece has a nasty warp.


I was planning on changing this table out with the slate, but since I've
re-stretch the cloth, getting with less than break speed, 6 rails around
the table, I'm find with that, so the slate sets are for the next table build.
I did finally get my racks done and mounted to the table.
Realizing the ability to load from either side led to the doubles set-up
which then led to the need for the abacus, distractions are time consuming.
on to my table light, next...

What are those curved things hanging on the side of the table? Mitch

Brunswick hasn't quarried their own slate in a looong time. RKC probably knows exact dates.

Click to expand...

I understand that their primary quarry operations have been moved out of this country to easier lodes, and cheaper labor.

However, RKC alluded in past posts that if Brunswick wanted to, they could re-open their VT quarries. (OWTTE). My question was does anyone know which/where Brunswick's old quarries were in VT; & do they still actually own them? (doesn't seem likely). If Brunswick does not own them, are they closed, or still in operation (for other/any products) by new owners?

Brunswick did use some PA slate.

Part of my curiosity is just industrial archaeology, some is an interest in the various slates.

smt

nine o nine said:

What are those curved things hanging on the side of the table? Mitch

Click to expand...

...game changers




...a hang up thing'e of mine.