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Pictures of my stones

S

sparq

Active Member
Hello,

I hope you will not mind if "register" my Belgian beauties here.

I am going to start with my first one. I got it from Rob @ AC who got me a very nice deal including covering a large portion of shipping costs to the US. He could not remember the layer but I think it is La Petit Blanche. I knew nothing about coticules and BBWs at that time and luckily for me the stone turned out to be a champ. It is a very pale fine figured coticule with a nice velvet sheen that makes it hard to photograph - the images either turn out too pale or too dark. In its sides, there are clearly visible blue streaks. The blue side is also finely yet deeply figured. I do not use dilluting methods. The coticule is a very fast one, it creates auto slurry with ease. With slurry, it is a fairly swift bevel setter. The BBW with slurry makes edges sharp qickly and the coticule w/H2O (to be washed frequently) polishes them very nicely. I got a lot of very comfortable shaves from it before I added a few more finishers to my little collection (by accident, not by design;) and it totally sold me on the idea of using coticule as one's only hone. There is a little weird transparent-ish spot/inclusion in the coticule that has no effect on edges whatsoever. I do not know what it is but it is not quartz.

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It's almost undeniably "La Nouvelle Veine". That slight cloudy pattern. Those small white spots with faint blue lines at the lateral side. It's all consistent with "La Nouvelle Veine".

Cheers,
Bart.
 
Thank you Bart. To me, it does not seem slow at all so I am guessing it might be one of the faster ones from that vein.

And now for something completely different. I bought this small coticule (30x150mm) for its looks. According to the seller, it was brought by a veteran from Germany to the US after WW2. It was not in use for decades but when it was, it was probably with oil (the stains, the way it repels water). It has "skin" - possibly a harder layer of oxidized material and/or dirt? It is very smooth. I do not have the heart to lap it as I like it as is. I tried to use it as a finisher with water or soap only but the results could be probably best described as a "placebo effect". Does anyone else here have a coticule in a similar condition?

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Lovely Stones all of them, thank you very much for sharing :thumbup:

I did have one in the same condition as your last post, but I got it straight home, into the sink with the diamond plates, and lapped it back into life :w00t:

Best wishes
Ralfson (Dr)
 
Thank you Ralphy. :)

Here is a vintage coticule that was housed in a paddle. It is darker/more brown than the "La Nouvelle Veine" stone and it gets more yellow when wet. It is slow, I intend to use it with knives. The blue side has coticule-like inclusions in it. I have no idea what vein this one came from. Note the fuzzy transition from coticule to BBW.

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I will add a few fresh observations about the last stone. The coticule side is very hard. If I rub it with my slurry stone, only the slurry stone gets abraded. If I rub it with DMT, it yields a deep yellow slurry. It is slower than my first coticule, the slurry gets gray only very slowly but it leaves the bevel more polished with shallower scratches. When polishing with H2O only, it will not raise slurry on its own even after a hundred of strokes but swarf gets embedded in the surface. Polished bevels are very shiny, almost like from synthetic hones, again I think they are smoother than those off my first coticule.

The BBW side is an interesting animal. It is very hard again - almost with a glass-like texture. It is fast and it gets the edge very keen very quickly, faster than the first stone and smoother, too. Perhaps the bright spots make a difference?

The razor honed on this stone gave me a pretty comfortable shave. I have been testing a few finishers for the last few weeks with the same razor, soap and prep. so I have a fairly good reference frame. It was not as comfortable as my finest finishers but it was close enough. Before my next shave, I will give the razor a few laps on CF just to feel the differences.
 
That last one could very well be a "La Grise", they're a wee bit slower than average, but excellent finishers. Also typical is that they don't display a lot of slurry-dulling factor, which makes them easy to work with. On water they tend to take some additional laps to get the smoothest possible edge.
The color and "wood-grain" pattern of your stone fits "La Grise" as well.

Thanks for sharing :thumbup:

Bart.
 
Thank you Bart. You are most certainly correct, it looks like #47 and it shares many qualities with the other ones mentioned in the tavern.

Here is my latest acquisition. I was attracted to it because of its looks and because the seller (Jarrod @ thesuperiorshave.com) was describing it as an exceptionally fast cutting specimen. This coticule feels a bit like a sheet of plastic having the color of butter and texture and sheen of velvet. I only tried it briefly and it is a very fast cutter indeed, the fastest of my coticules. The blue side is paler than my other stones and has a bit of metallic color when dry. The sides reveal an interesting stack of layers, there is a layer with red/pink tint attached to the blue one. I will report my further observations later.

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Very likely a fast "La Dressante". Traces of red point almost always to "La Dressante". Those brown lines point in the direction of Vault n°22, that lives with a good friend of mine. Test results never got published, still need to finalize testing on that one. But it's lightning fast. Very fast, similar to n°7, another fast "La Dressante". These have a very "loud" feedback, with a clear sensation of very fine abrasion. Even on plain water some of that feedback remains present.

People have solicited my opinion before about the descriptions of Coticules at thesuperiorshave.com. As far as I can tell, Jarrod's observations are always very accurate. It appears to me that he really knows what he's talking about, and takes the time to assess the stones properly. I don't know the guy, but should you be in touch with him, please send him my regards.

That's quite a collection you have.:thumbup:
Bart.
 
Thank you again for the identification Bart, now I need one from the ultimate fastest vein that is in such short supply. :) That and maybe one or two more. ;)

I possessed a green coticule for about a week. I returned it because it had toxic inclusions. They were white tiny speckles
and they were chipping edges badly. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of it.

Last but not least, here is my slurry stone that I got with my first coticule from Rob. I wish I could have a bigger stone of the same quality!

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