Thread: Big Vintage Belgian Coticule: ID help please

Just picked this up this week off ebay from a guy in New Hampshire. It came as part of the lot with the razor I was bidding on. Like the razor, but really love this vintage belgian coticule. Looks like the box was cut from a single piece of wood that appears to be walnut with a nice turned handle. Would guess this box and hone would date to mid/late 19th Century? Just a guess based on its patina and wear. Certainly has sat on a carpenter's or barber's bench for a long time. Box and stone smell a bit oily to me, but not surprising. Hone measures 8.5in x 2in x .75in (212mm x 50mm x 19.5mm). Took some "as found" pictures but also added "after lapping" photos to help with the specific ID. Compared this to some of the inventory photos on the Coticule.be site http://www.coticule.be/home.html but didn't find anything similar. Could be a La Grise but thought it could be a La Nouvelle Viene as well? Tried to post a query there but was unable to find the post button. Maybe it was a browser issue? Anyway, any help from SRP hone experts would be appreciated, as well as links to similar hones. Thanks, AJ

Early Coticules are not in the modern Coticule name groups. The mine was shut down for a while and the miners name stones by the fault/ drift/tunnel/ layer they were found and mined in.
The Coticule.be site is left as a informational site only thanks to a founder of the forum. There has been no posts for a couple years but the information is there for all to enjoy and learn from it.
The only way to define an early stone in by the edge it produces. Using the forum's methods a finishing Coticule may show grit scratches from about 6K to 12K, and that by the amount of slurry and how it is diluted over the honing period. Every natural stone is a new experience and so it may be a good one or not. There were some coarser ones as knife sharpeners also.
Have fun and use the methods shown on that forum as the videos show them. Coticule Sharpening Academy
~Richard

Not alot of coti left on that stone,go easy on the lapping

You can check out Henk Bos (Margeja) Grinding and Honing Part 4, if you are in general interested in Coticules and their different layers, if this helps.....

http://bosq.home.xs4all.nl/

Considering THIS ONE, that may be a very rare rose coticule!

So good to see you back, Utopian. You've been missed.

Good looking stone! the box is incredible, that said like others mentioned not much left on this coticule and im wondering about the patern we see on the stone if its from the BBW layer finding its way to the coticule side of the stone?

Thanks doorsch. Was hoping someone would send me this link. Ran across it this source document about 6-8 months ago on this site when it first came out but lost track of it. Having read part four it seems that this stone appears to be a "Les Latneuses" with hybrid layer. Source describes LL as a "soft finishing stone" has a "coffee with cream color" and the slurry that has a "creamy yellow polishing paste". This hybrid layer is however, very hard, took forever to lapp and very slow to raise any slurry. Just put a nice finish on a few old sheffields I had laying around. It is going to be a great finishing stone with water or dry. Thanks again, AJ