I shall google schist and have a look,I do think it may have an arsenic content,on those grounds I don’t think I shall do much with it as I have a studio/workshop cat and he may be a little adverse to arsenic and the only way he can wash his paws is to lick them. I opened a tab and googled and the hardness of 4-5 is about right,it cuts easilly, and also to be found in clays and shales,there is 300 feet of London clay where I found it. (as if you wouldn’t know the latter sentence).
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It all comes down to the sunlight test that Sasha was talking about.
Your sample looks pretty dark already so you might not see much change and I don’t know how long the process takes once you get the elusive sunshine - I would say don’t hold your breath on it happening but given the suspected presence of arsenic that might be a good idea.
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Yeah-arsenic isn’t that healthy 
. I think you really need to sure what the stuff is before you use it. Slightly worrying that ships may be dumping arsenic contaminated ballast in the sea. And also, sadly, typical.
I would just use gallery as if you were doing a rub-over mount and use a flat ended pusher to secure the tooth and a burnisher to finish off. 
Sam x
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A bit less of a brain tease, Hertfordshire pudding stone, we get a bit turn up here and there from the alluvial deposits left from the Thames when it ran past Colchester and its estuary was near Clacton on sea.
They don’t dump ballast anymore Sam,it’s a left over from the days of sail when they had no return cargo and they used it to stabilise the ship,no telling what other goodies they shovelled out.
Sasha,it looks like it may be turning quite rapidly,I shall observe as it may have just been drying out. Even if I am not selling much right now I am getting an education.
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Sounding like it was a good move on my part not getting the cab of vivianite I saw even though it was really pretty if it is changing that rapidly and I’d be interested to see the after photo to see how dark it gets.
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