Well, Howards prices are lower, alright, but then there's VAT (around 20% in most EU countries), import taxes (around 3-5%), handling fees and the very bad exchange rate (right now) to take into account. Ardennes coticule also have hones of both categories in stock.
I first spoke to Mr. Celis of Ardennes Coticule, then a person who has visited the quarry with Mr. Celis, and lastly, another person who sells them in Germany, and they all said that Standard and Selected grade coticules are of the same sharpening quality. Standard stones have cosmetic defects like natural coloring and inclusion lines like black manganese lines or quartz lines. If they have those lines, it can be a problem. Of course, there are different grades of Selected and Standard. As for prices, I'll go with Ardennes-Coticules in Belgium. Howard sells a 12 in² bout for $71 shipped. I don't know if it's Selected or Standard. Unless my math is very wrong, I can get a 13 - 15 in² (33 - 39 cm²) Selected bout from Mr. Celis that he handpicks for me for $48 shipped from Belgium to NY. It's not even close.
Oh, wow! I did 39 cm to inches and got 15.3543307 inches. I guess you can't do it that way. The right conversion shows that an equivalent stone would cost $22 more from Ardennes-Coticule but they give a free slurry stone. Basically, Howard's price is about $5-$10 cheaper, depending on currency conversions. Oh man... :ashamed001 Thanks for the correction. It goes to show that going from Computer Science to Law was a smart decision.:rofl
Don't sweat it. I could never get the hang of converting ^2 & ^3 metric values either -- that's why I use the cheat!
This is my first post at The Shave Den and I only found you folks as a result of a pop-up at the bottom of my screen. I'm Howard. I LOVE HONING. It's my passion. As a craftsman I also like to put quality tools into the hands of people at reasonable prices. I talk to people on the phone every day about honing and over the past 7 years have coached many folks in the art of straight razor honing as well as other tools as well. My advice on the price of Belgian stones as well as other stones such as Shaptons is to keep checking the websites as prices fluctuate with the rise and fall of the euro, yen, and US dollar. I don't hold it against anyone for getting the best price they can on a product. My feelings are somewhat hurt if they engage me for 1/2 hour on the phone and then buy somewhere else to save $5 as it makes me feel devalued but that's up to them! I also have tried different soaps, brushes, strops, etc. and can speak knowledgeably about them. My goal is to be a help to fellow straight razor shavers. As this is my first post, please forgive me if I've violated any rules either in letter or spirit. I'm not much of a self promoter and this posting is not a veiled attempt at such. The bout that Rob and his father Maurice sell at Ardennes are graded from No 1 to No 10. No 10 is the largest size and the only size I recommend for straight razor honing. They are about 12 sq in. of coticule mounted on slate.
The other thing to be aware of with the coticule market is to ask folks what they have in stock. Inventory from Belgium costs a lot of money and not everyone keeps all of the sizes in stock. The Belgians also don't have all of the sizes all of the time. There are vendors who advertise belgian stones on their site and don't carry any inventory. They wait until they have enough orders and then put in an order which can take months. The stones, as you note, come in Select and Standard grades. There are differences that go beyond cosmetics such as inclusions, fissures, cracks, evenness of thickness from end to end and side to side, levelness of the stone when set on a level surface, etc. When I re-introduced coticules into the U.S. over 7 years ago, they were practically unknown and I developed my knowledge of those amazing stones over many years. In terms of investment value alone, they beat my 401K!
