Bart
Well-Known Member
Gentlemen,
I've published test results on these Coticules.
First of all: n°31 will be staying with me for a while longer.:love: Sorry for that.
I had to interrupt tests on n°27. Most of those lovely pink speckles are fine, but there are also some orange deposits that occasionally chip the fragile edge of a razor. I've tried to lap a bit deeper into the hone, but new inclusions emerged, so I think this one is a no go. Chisels and knives would pose no problems, but razors can't be honed on this specimen. Please understand that I picked this one for its odd looks. Ardennes wouldn't have sold such a weird piece to an unsuspecting buyer. I hope they'll have another one like that, without the orange inclusions.
The grandson of the gent that purchases n°28 might find out, because that one has the same speckles, buried underneath several mm of different Coticule. N°28 is a nice combination hone. Very finely grained BBW, with excellent properties for progressive Coticule-slurry/BBW-slurry/Coticule-water honing. It's not the fastest Coticule, but the sharpness you'll get off slurry will be quite high. I doubted between ++ and ++/+++. The mystery layer deeper in the hone will most likely be +++, based on my experiences with the unfortunate n°27. Hence this hone comes with a free lottery ticket. At 5mm and more, the top layer is thick enough to consider the speckled layer underneath a free extra. The edge of n°28 can be qualified as on the smoothest side, within the pretty narrow crispiness/smoothness range delivered by Coticules.
N°30 and n°33 are almost identical. They both come from the "La Verte" layer. I hadn't come across these ones yet. They feel somehow coarser than I expect from a Coticule. During my very first honing on n°30, I was certainly raising an eyebrow. Yet the edge (a Unicot for the first test) came out very nice. Certainly at the clean, keen and crispy side of the spectrum. I've worked with other greenish Coticules (JimR has one), but they were quite different. N°30 and 33 appear with a "fast" feel, but are slower than one would suspect out of that. N°33 feels like it has a tad more refined feedback, but the edges of both are indiscernible the same.
Which brings us to n°31 - "Les Latneuses".
Lighting fast, one of the fastest I've met,while amazingly fine in feedback. I have an equally fast vintage Coticule of unknown layer, but that one feels almost gritty, and shaves no arm hair coming off anything but very watery slurry. N°31 is equally fast but shaves arm hair very well off regular slurry. The hybrid side is a bit slower, but leaves the edge even sharper, also coming off slurry. It has a very nice, luxurious draw on the main side. Almost no tangible abrasion on water. The finished edge is comparable to n°28, but working on this hone is like driving a Mercedes-Benz S550.
I'll look out for a couple more of these.
Kind regards,
Bart.
I've published test results on these Coticules.
First of all: n°31 will be staying with me for a while longer.:love: Sorry for that.
I had to interrupt tests on n°27. Most of those lovely pink speckles are fine, but there are also some orange deposits that occasionally chip the fragile edge of a razor. I've tried to lap a bit deeper into the hone, but new inclusions emerged, so I think this one is a no go. Chisels and knives would pose no problems, but razors can't be honed on this specimen. Please understand that I picked this one for its odd looks. Ardennes wouldn't have sold such a weird piece to an unsuspecting buyer. I hope they'll have another one like that, without the orange inclusions.
The grandson of the gent that purchases n°28 might find out, because that one has the same speckles, buried underneath several mm of different Coticule. N°28 is a nice combination hone. Very finely grained BBW, with excellent properties for progressive Coticule-slurry/BBW-slurry/Coticule-water honing. It's not the fastest Coticule, but the sharpness you'll get off slurry will be quite high. I doubted between ++ and ++/+++. The mystery layer deeper in the hone will most likely be +++, based on my experiences with the unfortunate n°27. Hence this hone comes with a free lottery ticket. At 5mm and more, the top layer is thick enough to consider the speckled layer underneath a free extra. The edge of n°28 can be qualified as on the smoothest side, within the pretty narrow crispiness/smoothness range delivered by Coticules.
N°30 and n°33 are almost identical. They both come from the "La Verte" layer. I hadn't come across these ones yet. They feel somehow coarser than I expect from a Coticule. During my very first honing on n°30, I was certainly raising an eyebrow. Yet the edge (a Unicot for the first test) came out very nice. Certainly at the clean, keen and crispy side of the spectrum. I've worked with other greenish Coticules (JimR has one), but they were quite different. N°30 and 33 appear with a "fast" feel, but are slower than one would suspect out of that. N°33 feels like it has a tad more refined feedback, but the edges of both are indiscernible the same.
Which brings us to n°31 - "Les Latneuses".
Lighting fast, one of the fastest I've met,while amazingly fine in feedback. I have an equally fast vintage Coticule of unknown layer, but that one feels almost gritty, and shaves no arm hair coming off anything but very watery slurry. N°31 is equally fast but shaves arm hair very well off regular slurry. The hybrid side is a bit slower, but leaves the edge even sharper, also coming off slurry. It has a very nice, luxurious draw on the main side. Almost no tangible abrasion on water. The finished edge is comparable to n°28, but working on this hone is like driving a Mercedes-Benz S550.
I'll look out for a couple more of these.
Kind regards,
Bart.