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Are inclusions like this harmful?

mrmaroon

Well-Known Member
I have a new coticule and when I got it it had a tiny little inclusion in it. I don't know if it was my mind or for real, but when I honed on it I felt something. I decided to lap it a little and see if I could get past it. Now I am left with a huge inclusion about 1"x.75" it also has a long strip about .5"x4" going down the middle.

When wet it looks translucent and I can definitely feel in feedback that it is a lot harder in that spot. I can tell by the way the vibrations transfer to my hand. It looks like there is a divot in the stone in this picture, but it feels flat all across. It has a glass-like effect. Only on that sparkly white spot does it feel a little different.
coti2.jpg


Here is the side view, the dark strips will end up being translucent if I ever wear/lap down that far
coti5.jpg


Is this characteristic of any particular layer? Maybe I am just looking for a reason to blame my medicore skills, but it is concerning me.

Hope someone knows whats going on!
Mrmaroon
 
I'm not sure but to me it looks like a quartz inclusion. If it has a negative effect I would contact the folks @ Ardennes Coticule and tell them about it (if that's where you got it from). They will most likely take it back and send you a new one free of shipping costs. Otherwise just contact your reseller.
 
kinematic said:
I'm not sure but to me it looks like a quartz inclusion. If it has a negative effect I would contact the folks @ Ardennes Coticule and tell them about it (if that's where you got it from). They will most likely take it back and send you a new one free of shipping costs. Otherwise just contact your reseller.

Sound advice. Looks indeed like quartz. If it has a negative influence, it will show up as microchips under magnification.
Contact Ardennes, with your pictures. They're very forthcoming guys.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
I would, but this isn't an ardeness coticule, I picked it up at an antique store. So the best thing would be to try and lap past this? Im only out 7.50$ on this thing, so it's not a big loss. I'll keep testing it the way it is before I do any experiments on it.
 
That indeed changes the possibilities to get a replacement.:thumbdown:

Is that a BBW it is glued to? Those dark spots, are they drying water spots, or do they appear that way on the entire BBW side?
Let me know, I'm not just asking this out of curiosity.

Concerning the inclusion, it will only affect your honing IF it does damage to the edge. That does show up with magnification. Do you have a way to check for that?

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
I have a Coticule (got from a member here) that has those 'quartz' inclusions to a much lesser degree than yours.

It hasn't interfered much with honing yet, but I'll soon have to lap through it. I found that when raising slurry, this section of the stone does not wear down as quickly as the coticule areas, so I can now just barely feel a lip in that area.

It's towards one end of the stone, so it doesn't get in the way usually, but if I ever take a blade that far, I'm sure there'll be edge damage.

I hope I can lap through this area on the hone I have.:(
 
No Bart, those were water spots. Why do you ask? The BBW is kind of unique. It has what looks to be two different layers. I will try to get a picture after classes today.

I will test with my mic after I get some batteries today.
regards
 
yohannrjm said:
I have a Coticule (got from a member here) that has those 'quartz' inclusions to a much lesser degree than yours.

It hasn't interfered much with honing yet, but I'll soon have to lap through it. I found that when raising slurry, this section of the stone does not wear down as quickly as the coticule areas, so I can now just barely feel a lip in that area.

It's towards one end of the stone, so it doesn't get in the way usually, but if I ever take a blade that far, I'm sure there'll be edge damage.

I hope I can lap through this area on the hone I have.:(
Do link some pictures.
solid Quartz inclusions are not good. That's for sure.

mrmaroon said:
No Bart, those were water spots. Why do you ask?
I was wondering if you had one like those 2 I mentioned. They have typical spikes in the BBW part. But yours is glued, so the BBW can be of any origin. Forget that I asked. Let's see those pictures.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Ive tested this hone against Barts Veinette we are using in the experiment. I did 2 sucessful dilocots on Barts hone during my first two tries! This tells me that my hone is a little harder to dilute right. If I had to pick a layer it is comparable to I would say it is a la dressant. Compared to barts veinette and my barber's special this thing feels like coarse sandpaper. It has a very rough matte finish. It is slow on slurry, but on water it develops black streaks and swarf in the water fast.

I think what is making dilocot difficult is the size of the garnets. I can visibly see the garnets on my hone. With Barts and my barber special they were both very smooth. I believe this is having an effect similar to a BBW with slurry. The garnets are so big that they cut slower. However, they leave bigger scratches that are hard to take out with dilution.

I have not yet shaved with barts coti because I don't want to skew test results, however I have a feeling mine will be a lot more "Brisk" than his.

comparison of these three hones relative to Barts.

Barber special
Speed on slurry - Faster than Barts Veinette
Speed on water - Equal to barts Veinette

Barts veinette
Speed on water medium/fast
Speed with slurry - Fast

My coticule (maybe a dressant?)
Speed on water - crazy fast
Speed with slurry - very slow
 
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