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265123 Gregory Hahn <greghahn@s...> 2018‑02‑13 Coticule is one-sided
Gathered Galoots:
Last week's discussion of Belgian Coticule stones didn't really answer Ed's
question about which side was harder/finer. Because of the topic, I was alerted
to the presence of one at an estate sale, bought it, and have been researching
the stone's many qualities. I may be stating what everyone already knows, but to
quote Obi-Wan and Yoda: "Stay away from the Dark side." The cream colored side
is the only surface meant to be used in honing, the dark side is just there to
support the fragile/brittle Coticule and is no better at sharpening an edge than
any flat rock you pick up out of the dirt. Hope this was informative, and that I
haven't made myself a laughingstock with a warning everyone already knew.
-Greg
265124 Claudio DeLorenzi <admin@d...> 2018‑02‑13 Re: Coticule is one-sided
My father's Belgian blue sharpening stone that he brought over from Italy
was so worn through the middle over the years that it became two triangular
bits, but I'm not sure if this was exactly the same type of stone you
have.
  There was no backing stone or whatever it's called on it at all.  Nor
did it have a case for storage.  It was small, maybe 2.5 by 6 and maybe
3/4" thick or so. When dry it looked dark gray, when wet it was bluish in
color.
  It cut hard steel very well, and Dad always used only cold running water
(standing at the sink), never any oil and you could hear how it was
cutting.  He put a lot if emphasis on the sound the blade made during the
sharpening, something that I have never seen anyone else talk about
before.  He said that you could listen and tell when you were off the edge.
Does anyone else use the sound as a guide?
  He got the stone in the tiny city of  Maniago, Italy, a major knife
making center in the North of Italy near where he grew up.  He spoke highly
of the knife makers there.  I went there a few years ago (in 2000, holy
crap that's almost 20 years ago!) but couldn't find anything even remotely
like that blue stone--although I did buy a nice pocket knife there as a
souvenir (LionSteel).  Maybe Japanese water stones really are better?
  There are (were?) still many independent knife makers there, but the
couple places I visited seemed to have modern mechanised shops or factories
with big belt sanders, power hammers, digital heat treat furnaces and so on
(not an iconic craftsman standing over a coal forge working with hammer and
anvil).
Cheers
Claudio
265125 Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> 2018‑02‑13 Re: Coticule is one-sided
Thans Greg - who would have thought?  The maroon/eggplant colored side of mine
sure looks like it’s a sharpening stone.

Ed Minch
265126 Tom Dugan <tom_dugan@h...> 2018‑02‑13 Re: Coticule is one-sided
It depends. Per the www.coticule.be<http://www.coticule.be> website:


"The Belgian hones (Coticule and Belgian Blue Whetstone, commonly abbreviated to
BBW) are very closely related. They are mined together. Actually is is
impossible to extract any Coticule without also extracting massive amounts of
BBW. Traditionally, Coticules were always backed by a piece of BBW. Some bonded
together by nature, but most of them glued together by man. The main reason for
this is to reinforce the Coticule part with the stronger Blue stone. Nowadays,
Coticules are backed with a piece of Portuguese Slate, because it is more cost-
effective to use easily available slate tiles for backing a Coticule than to
produce labor intensive backing stones out of BBW rocks. " Snip.



The one I picked out of the $5 bucket at PATINA is clearly naturally bonded, and
the blue side is a decent but coarser stone. But modern stones are apparently
bonded to slate.


-T


________________________________
From: OldTools  on behalf of Ed Minch 
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2018 2:52 PM
To: Gregory Hahn
Cc: Old Tools
Subject: Re: [OldTools] Coticule is one-sided

Thanks Greg - who would have thought?  The maroon/eggplant colored side of mine
sure looks like it’s a sharpening stone.

Ed Minch
265128 Gregory Hahn <greghahn@s...> 2018‑02‑13 Re: Coticule is one-sided
Hi Guys:
I guess my research has some gaps in it. I saw videos of, and read about them
backing stones with slate, and read about BBW being similar (having slightly
larger garnet crystals than coticule), but I missed the part about coticule
being sandwiched between BBW. My stone is also naturally bonded together, with a
somewhat wavy border between the two layers, but since "eggplant purple" isn't
blue, I didn't think that it was the same thing, Mea Culpa. That coticule.be
website also has a photo gallery of all the different patterns that coticule
shows. Very pretty.  Anyway, I guess that was a close shave.Ducking and running
-
-Greg


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265129 Gregory Hahn <greghahn@s...> 2018‑02‑13 Re: Coticule is one-sided
Hi Guys:
I guess my research has some gaps in it. I saw videos of, and read about them
backing stones with slate, and read about BBW being similar (having slightly
larger garnet crystals than coticule), but I missed the part about coticule
being sandwiched between BBW. My stone is also naturally bonded together, with a
somewhat wavy border between the two layers, but since "eggplant purple" isn't
blue, I didn't think that it was the same thing, Mea Culpa. That coticule.be
website also has a photo gallery of all the different patterns that coticule
shows. Very pretty.  Anyway, I guess that was a close shave.Ducking and running
-
-Greg


|  | Virus-free. www.avg.com  |
265130 Nick Jonkman <njonkman@x...> 2018‑02‑14 Re: Coticule is one-sided
My father also had such a stone on which he sharpened everything. It too 
got thin in the middle. He brought it with him when we emigrated from 
the Netherlands in 1951. When I was young sometime in the 60s I found 
such a stone somewhere for myself about 2" x 8" and have used it most of 
my life. I dropped it once and about a 2" pointed piece broke off which 
lives in my mechanic tool box the other part in my wood shop. I did 
dress it a few times to keep it flat and still works great. From the 
time I was a child (1940s) I watched my dad use his. Usually water was 
not readily available so saliva was always used which habit I also 
picked up. Works great. The stone is almost like slate.

Nick

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