Thread: Belgian stones

Please help me out here, can someone explain what I need to know about these belgian stones? I also want to buy or trade for one, particularly a large 4X8, vintage yellow stone.

Originally Posted by rgdominguez

Please help me out here, can someone explain what I need to know about these belgian stones? I also want to buy or trade for one, particularly a large 4X8, vintage yellow stone.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but unless you are a wealthy man, a 4 * 8 will be out of your reach, assuming we are talking about inches here.

A 2 * 8 costs 120 euros = 155 $.

price goes exponentially with size.
Another thing is that most people who know yellow know that vintage stones are often of better quality because in the olden days they only sold high quality pieces because they could afford to scrap mediocre stone.

Quarrying stone becomes harder as the seams run deeper into the rock, so these days they sell almost anything that is of reasonable quality. Coticules of perfect color and uniformity are kept aside for kosher use, and cost 30 to 40 % more than what I already mentioned.

My yellow is 7 by 1.5 inch, and it does the job well enough for 65 euros.
Of course I'd rather have an 8 * 3, but that would set me back > 200 $, assuming I could find one.

Yellow is mostly used as a finishing stone. It has a very fine grit size (12K). The garnets come free easily, raising a slurry that allows for a very fine polish.
Most people use a Norton 4K/8K stone for sharpening a razor. afterwards, some use the yellow to polish the edge to perfection. Others only use a pasted paddle strop after the norton.

The advantage of the norton is that it is a manmade stone with a uniform grit size. lots of people on this forum use it, so you will be able to share experiences and learn a lot by using the same stone. it is also a lot cheaper than a yellow coticule, and measures 3 * 8 inches.