Thread: Escher or Coticule differences

A little late to it here, but I've tried several coticules and several eschers. The eschers are all almost the same, even with color variations and they don't wow me but they do what they're supposed to do (finish a razor) reliably, and even in hands that don't have much experience.

I've had, I guess, four good coticules, and they are all much different than the eschers. They are coarser stones with the same amount of pressure or technique and more of an experimenter's stone.

Personally, I see them both as overpriced for what they do. Japanese naturals on the medium hard side are not much different than a thuri, but the concession is that they are all a bit different unless you get a stone that came from the same mine and same strata and close to another stone. I can find hard koppa that do a very good job (at about $75), and stones that cost $500 that are not that much different, the chance being that you might get a piece of stone (koppa) that is not that great and have to buy another at $75. I haven't seen an inexpensive coticule of any size nor a thuri of size, and as long as the escher market stays high, it doesn't matter too much what you pay because you can get most of it back.

Coticules have been a much bigger pain in the butt for me to sell because of their inconsistency. If I have a good one, I'd like to recover the cost of it when I want to unload it, but the fact that some aren't that great drags down the used market price for a good one.