Ardennes, founded in 1998, continues the activities which were started in 1865 by the original work shop ‘ateliers Burton’. This involves the exploitation of the quarries and the production and sales of schist for different applications. Ardennes is specialised in the well known whetstone Coticule or Belgian Sharpening Stones. Our activities aren’t limited to the production of this whetstone. We also produce purple-blue natural construction stones, filler for the production of clay tubes and pigments for the brick industry.

History tells us that, whetstones have been mined in the Belgian Ardennes since 1625. Today these deposits are unique and are only to be found in this form in the Ardennes. The stones are mined from approx. 480 million year old, almost soft, grey-yellow sedimentary rock built up from clay and volcanic ash. During regional metamorphosis a reorganisation of contained minerals has taken place. Many of the minerals disappeared but importantly some appeared namely quantities of Spessartit Garnet crystals.

When using these whetstone the crystals are released from the stone itself and produce together with water a very “abrasive milk”. In crystal form the Garnet is round or slightly oval and resembles a football (5-20 micron), made up of tiny facets (Rhomboid). These facets create obtuse angles to each other, and it is these corners which are in contact with the metal to be sharpened. These attributes are why the stone sharpens so quickly and delicately.

This stone is typical for the Lierneux-Vielsalm region and belongs to the geological formation of the Salmian (lower Ordovician sediments in Belgium), one of the oldest stones in Belgium. Most of the stones in the Ardennes have grubby colours: black, dark green and grey. The Salmian gives us a lively stone, with colour variations from blue-grey to clear purple. The building stones are packed on palettes. Two categories are available: rough and unsawed or tooled. Rough and unsawed stones have a thickness of 3 to 15 cm, a length of 15 to 35 cm and a depth of 15 to 30 cm. Tooled (processed) stones have the same thickness and length but the depth is sawed on specific demand of the customer (mostly 14 cm).