After many years of hunting wild stones, I have rescued the finest Coticule that I have ever found. A very old and odd shaped (bout?) stone that is roughly 6 x 3 1/2 that is pure Coti without any backing Stone. It was covered with many decades of funk. Three days of soaking and scraping was needed to remove all the gunk and oil residue. What I was left with is a uber hard Coti with manganese lines, spots, swirls and layers. I knew it had potential but it is surpassing all expectations. It was very flat when found so it just needed a gentle lap to refresh. After lapping, went to work on it with lite slurry with a beater blade. Very slow with velvety smooth feedback. Slurry darkened slightly after a few dozen laps but could not see swarf until wiped down with white paper. The slurry honing seamed to burnish the surface. When I went to water only, it has a glass like feedback and delivered a nicely polished edge. Refreshed a few of my rotation blades with water. Took many dozens of laps to get there, but it delivered a high HHT and a kicked up, smoothest edge I ever got. I like this stone and will be a good caretaker for it. I have to wait for more time, but going to try finishing on oil next. First two pictures as found and rest after clean-up
I know absolutely nothing about this subject, but it was still a fascinating post with some crazy terminology. 'lite slurry with a beater blade'; 'could not see swarf'; 'it delivered a high HHT'
Thank you gentlemen Like the grunts made by primitive man sharpening shells and bones, rock rubbers have a unique language....HAHA
