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Vintage Coticule ID

C

CJBianco

Member
I bought this combination a short while ago, and I'm curious about the mine/layer name or any other information our members can provide. Before I lapped the coti side, it had three stamps. One stamp read "SELECTED," and the other two were illegible. The size is exactly 299mm x 67.5mm x 35mm.

The first photos are the stone dry. (I'll add some wet photos in a moment.)

Thanx,
Christopher




 
Indeed! Congrats! And no, please don't cut it in into smaller hones as was suggested elsewhere: rarity increases exponentially with size. Should you want smaller hones, I'm sure someone will happily trade or pay the equivalent of what you could cut out of it - and a bit more.

The more orangey than pinkish 'gritty' colouring reminds me of some of my hones. Not sure from which layer they stem, but I've been told they are a La Dressante variety:

cimg6086klein.jpg
cimg6089klein.jpg


90309salmoncoticule6kle.jpg
90309salmoncoticule10kl.jpg
 
All coticules come from 480 million years old rock layers. A few decades on that kind of time scale doesn't make a coticule vintage ;)
 
kinematic said:
All coticules come from 480 million years old rock layers. A few decades on that kind of time scale doesn't make a coticule vintage ;)
Click to expand...

I apologize for my ignorance. Please forgive me.

Thanx,
Christopher
 
Come on Kinematic, don't kill CJBianco's enthusiasm. :)
It simply means all our coticules are vintage (~480.000.000 +/- 100 year old). :D
 
ID-ing that one is a tough call. I'm almost certain it comes from Ardennes. All the more you stated that it carried a "Select" stamp. To my knowledge (which is only partial), they're the only ones that use the "select" qualification. Could the other stamps have been something like "the Perfect Edge"? I'm asking because that's a reseller who puts stamps on his Coticules.

Anyway, that yellowish appearance with red patches that almost look like a rash is typical for some La Dressante hones. But at the same time those white lines in the blue part (shown in close up at the second picture) are typical for the La Veinette layer.

Check out Vault n°18 and 26. N°26 is confirmed by Ardennes to be a La Veinette, n°18 is "unknown", because of the similar doubts as with the one we're looking at right now, but nonetheless, it's probably a La Dressante.
Maybe you can correlate the behavior of yours, to my descriptions of these 2 in the Vault.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
The two other stamps were completely illegible, so they could've read "Lucky Dog Coticule Company" for all I know. The top stamp was oval-shaped and a bit larger than a US quarter. The second was a single line of text at maybe three or four words, and the third only read "SELECTED" and can be seen in the photo just above the playing card. (The stamps didn't show too well in photographs.)

The last owner kept the stone as a laboratory tool used for sharpening scalpels and microtomes, and was clearing out his warehouse full of old microtome machines and other such things. He says it's an old stone.

Here's a photo of the box it came inside.

Thanx,
Christopher
 
Oldengaerde said:
Indeed! Congrats! And no, please don't cut it in into smaller hones as was suggested elsewhere: rarity increases exponentially with size. Should you want smaller hones, I'm sure someone will happily trade or pay the equivalent of what you could cut out of it - and a bit more.

The more orangey than pinkish 'gritty' colouring reminds me of some of my hones. Not sure from which layer they stem, but I've been told they are a La Dressante variety
Click to expand...

I held my stone up to the computer monitor, and it looks identical to the first stone you posted. (Although I absolutely LOVE the second stone!)

Thanx,
Christopher
 
Wait! I just saw a small stamping on the wood box. It reads: PMC LTD / 3 [arrow up] 52.

Does that tell us anything?

Thanx,
Christopher
[img=800]http://www.coticule.be/system/modules/helpdesk/HelpdeskFrontendDownload.php?msg=8731&id=1[/img]
 
Could be one of several things…
Could be an abbreviation of the company name that supplied the laboratory equipment, or the name of the lab that bought the equipment, or the name of the company that made the box.

I could be wrong, but the stamp on the box looks more like PNC (or PNG)… not sure if this helps… But "Ltd" would be Limited-(Liability Company) and probably British (Americans would be Inc for Incorporated).

Personally, I would consider that slab… err… stone, as “vintage”, simply because it was long ago used to sharpen tools that are today regarded as vintage.
Certainly, the box appears to have been well made decades ago, with screws and countersunk holes (and probably dovetailed joints), also, they no longer “stamp” wooden boxes.

Damn you are lucky.
 
The lighting throws off the photo, but in person it's easy to read the M in PMC LTD. And I agree about the Limited.

I googled "PMC LTD" and found a lot of info on a current stereo speaker website, but when I added "laboratory" to the search, I found a few old science articles/papers where the experiment describes some equipment from PMC LTD (one article from 1970s), but there are so many companies that use the letters PMC LTD that it's impossible to find the right one. Oh, well.

I guess the important thing is that it's here now. =)

Thanx everyone. =)


Me
 
The arrow is a broad arrow, a symbol used in the UK (and Australia, and maybe some other ex-colonies too) to indicate government property. Unauthorized use of it is a criminal offence. The general public may know it best from use on Nato-issued watches.
 
Oldengaerde said:
The arrow is a broad arrow, a symbol used in the UK (and Australia, and maybe some other ex-colonies too) to indicate government property. Unauthorized use of it is a criminal offence. The general public may know it best from use on Nato-issued watches.
Click to expand...

Bang on, I see it a lot on Army surplus stuff, its usually a good indication of robust quality too, the forces didnt buy gear that wouldnt last, well the older stuff that is.

Best Regards
Ralfson (Dr)
 
I wonder what the 3 and 52 mean. (1952?) Who knows? But I hope the government doesn't seize my stone. =)


Christopher
 
tat2Ralfy said:
Bang on, I see it a lot on Army surplus stuff, its usually a good indication of robust quality too, the forces didnt buy gear that wouldnt last, well the older stuff that is.
Click to expand...
That's what I also thought and Swiss Army stuff seemed to me the synonym of top quality lasting forever.
Untill I talked to an acquaintance from Switzerland who revealed that some time ago Swiss Army has put stainless flasks out to tender. Driven by cost cutting imperative they favoured a product of some Chineese company over a local manufacturer. It didn't take long when stainless flasks started to rust. :D
True or not, I'm more sceptical about army surplus stuff now. ;)
 
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