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harder or softer slurry stone?

malacoda

Member
Am very anxious to get and try a coticule for the first time. However, while I'm finding tons of great info here, at the forums - SRP, B&B, etc. - there is one area I'm not finding much info on and am a little confused about: slurry stones...


  • [li]Is it better for a slurry stone to be softer than the coticule - thereby ensuring it will wear down quicker than the coti?[/li]
    [li][/li]
    [li]Is it better for the slurry stone to be harder than the coticule - so it won't act like swarf on the coti surface?[/li]
Or does it not really matter?

Would appreciate any insights you can offer.

Thanks.
 
Well, a slurry stone contributes to the slurry, so it can make a difference for the hone's behavior.
A slow hone will become a bit faster if you use a fast slurry stone. But the influence is only partial, because speed is determined by an important other factor. Once there is slurry present, that slurry also abrades the surface of the hone, thereby assuring a constant stream of fresh garnets. (This does not mean that "hard" stones are always slow, it really turns out way more complicated that that. Obviously, that stream of fresh garnets are not released by the slurry stone. It is one of the major factors that introduces differences in Coticules (speed but also the "slurry-dulling" effect. It is that effect that forces us to finish on water, which of course undergoes no influence of the slurry stone at all.

Last Friday, I brought a bunch of "La Veinette" and "La Petite Blanche" slurry stones with me from Ardennes. Those are very consistent layers with typical qualities, so the slurry stones are perfect candidates to seek out how much their capabilities shines through the properties of the hone itself. I will probably test this on a slow Coticule, because both aforementioned layers are typically fast.

I might later offer those slurry stones for sale to cover for some of the expenses running this website.
They were a gift from Ardennes. But that intention will in no way influence my experimental research on this topic.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
I will take one... for one of my experiments to document using various techniques to show efficiency of using a very small (less than 3 inch long) Coticule to sharpen a razor.... this will be fun.
 
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