This stone was a wild find at the flea market/boot sale a few weeks ago. A nine inch natural stone with damage to the last inch. Great opportunity to have a eight inch Coti with same stone slurry cut from its mother. Cut off the damage end and made them a case from pine that was brought done during hurricane charley in 2004. It appears to be very fast on slurry, made short work of a bad edge on a beater blade. First two pictures are as found. It will make a nice addition to my rock pile.
I stink at the Coticule vein game, or really anything about Coticules, but this is a natural hybrid, correct? I mean it goes from the BBW to the yellow(ish) naturally and not glued. I am looking to be edumacated!!!
Thank you gentlemen for the kind words When it comes to vintage Coti's it is virtually impossible to tell of its town or vein of origin. In the 18th, 19th, early 20th century there were many miners and producers as opposed to only one today. You are correct, it is a natural and not glued stone. It does have a nice graduation from BBW to Coticule.
I have only played slightly with it. Ran two beater Blades with slurry and beveled fairly quickly. Refreshed one edge on water only and did not like the feel. Felt gritty and produced swarf quicker than I like. Might be a lower end stone and not high end. Need to play with it some more but have other finishers to test drive first. Either way it was a nice marriage of wood and rock with a same stone tomo
That is the problem with coticule, there lacks some kind of a stamp system as with the jnats, now some poor stones tend to ruine the coticule reputation,...
The Coti's reputation with me is Sterling. This stone was a wild find, so you never know until you use and I am still on the fence. If you buy from a reputable dealer, such as TSS or direct from Ardennes, tell them what you want, you will get such a stone that does what you want. As long you take the time to learn your stone personality you will get the Coti edge. I do not know of the Jnat stamping system you talk about other than Maruka stamp. To me, it's not about a stamp, at all about the edge.
First, i am a big fan of coticules! If you buy a yellow green esher you know it will provide a soft shaving edge, green will be a bit hardher,.... A thuringer, well it can go all the way from soft to very harsh. Arkansas, they are also selected and sold on hardness ( color). Japanese stones get marked with mine, inclusions, the hardness and softness and the slurrystones are selected. Coticule, there are good looking ones (selected) and poor looking ones (Standard), and extremely good looking (koosher) but that says nothing about the honing capacities. A system like the vault was a good attempt to bring some standardisation. For a novice honer or a honer new to coticule it might be easier.
