The Coticule Diaries - part1

[Bart]

Some time ago I did a 3 day hike, together with two friends, through the area were coticule is found in Belgium. We visited the last operational quarry, had a great time and learned many things about coticule. Some members have expressed an interest in our whereabouts, so, here I am, posting part 1 of our story. It requires a bit of reading, and I must ask you all to bare with my use of the English language. It's not my native language, so I guess I make many mistakes.
Part 2 will follow shortly, and includes much more pictures than text, which, considering the above, is probably a good thing.

Best regards,

Bart.

[ChrisL]

Bart:

Thank you so much for producing such an excellent piece on your travels. I read every word and found it wonderful. I'm also humbled by your mastery of the English language.

I can't wait for more!!!

Chris L

[JimmyHAD]

Magnificent!

[heavydutysg135]

Really really nice write up! Thank you for taking the time to share your experience.

[clrobert60]

That's a great write-up, I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment

[heavydutysg135]

If you make a return trip to the mines then you can put you arms over each other's shoulders, skip, and sing "follow the Belgian Blue Road, follow the Belgian Blue Road, follow follow follow follow the belgian blue road..." Bad joke . Seriously though, I really really wish that I could go on a treasure hunt with you guys; in America we don't have valuable stones laying on the ground for the pickin

[heavydutysg135]

One question, in your write up you said that the coticules are graded from 1-4 (up to Kosher) based on their appearance, but this has nothing to do with their performance. In your past write ups you seemed to suggest that you had several coticules performed significantly differently from one another (most or all left a similar scratch pattern, but they cut at very different speeds). At this point do you think that there is any corrolation between a coticule's performance and it's appearance; and if so what do you look for (now that you are one of the forum's experts on these stones ). Otherwise, is the only way to find out about the stones performance to compare it to other coticules via testing. Maybe you already answered this in another thread, if so then can you kindly provide the link.

Thanks,
David

[Bart]

If you make a return trip to the mines then you can put you arms over each other's shoulders, skip, and sing "follow the Belgian Blue Road, follow the Belgian Blue Road, follow follow follow follow the belgian blue road..." Bad joke . Seriously though, I really really wish that I could go on a treasure hunt with you guys; in America we don't have valuable stones laying on the ground for the pickin

No, but In America, you can click your heels three times, think a happy thought, and find yourself on the Yellow Road, which is better still than the Blue Road. Remember, Dorothy, you can shave right of the Yellow Road.

If you ever make the trip over the ocean, and you need a place to stay, just let me know.

PS. We have a smilies police on SRP now... "You have included 9 images in your message. You are limited to using 7 images so please go back and correct the problem and then continue again. Images include use of smilies, the BB code [img]http://straightrazorpalace.com/advanced-honing-topics/ tag and HTML <img> tags. The use of these is all subject to them being enabled by the administrator."

[heavydutysg135]

PS. We have a smilies police on SRP now... "You have included 9 images in your message. You are limited to using 7 images so please go back and correct the problem and then continue again. Images include use of smilies, the BB code [img]http://straightrazorpalace.com/advanced-honing-topics/ tag and HTML <img> tags. The use of these is all subject to them being enabled by the administrator."

Don't worry about them too much, they have got caught me a few times before and I am still here to tell the tale.

[netsurfr]

thanks for taking the time to put this information and documentation together.