Thread: Help with choosing a finishing stone

Originally Posted by English

Just for the record and I don't own one .............. but ........


The people who sell the Belgian coticule who should (?) know what they are talking about say that the size of the cutting particles on both the blue and the yellow are the same. There are more of the particles released for cutting on the yellow than the blue.
Also a slurry will release even more cutting garnets on both types of hone.

As a matter of fact, I have asked this directly to Maurice Celis, mine engineer and proprietor of Ardennes Coticule. He said garnet size of the Coticule is within a range of 5 to 15 micron and the Blue Whetstone within 10 to 20 micron. Let's assume that the largest particles define the hone's fineness. That still leaves us with a 33% particle size increment from the blue to the yellow. One also needs to bring into account that there most likely are differences in agressiveness between the garnets.

At the same time, the speed difference between any blue with slurry and most coticules with slurry is so obviously big that they really are to be considered two different hones. A coticule can be put to use as a bevel setter, while that same task would take eons on a blue.

Bart.