I would not consider myself an expert on coticules by any stretch of the word. The late Henk Bos, Bart Torfs and Maurice Celis are the ones that come to mind upon whom I would bestow the title of expert; I am sure there are more, but these are off the top of my head, and I do not consider myself to be in the same league, not even close. I consider myself a relatively experienced user (4+ years of almost exclusive use), of which there are many. Even though I might be vocal about my preferences and experiences, I do not consider myself an authority on the subject of coticules or their use in honing.
Half of the coticules I have had were recently mined. The reasons for this, however, were not performance related. They were available directly from the manufacturer, who is very helpful. The good folks over at Ardennes-coticule have given me advice and I have had the possibilities to discuss choices and preferences. The prices were very reasonable. For instance, I bought my first coticule from them, a La Veinnette combination hone, pretty much sized like the Old Rock hones (2x4x1"), for €46 back in 2011. An Old Rock (or whatever other boxed older coticule with a brand name) would have, in all likelihood, cost me more, without manufacturer's warranty, and performance would probably not have been any "better". I have had and tried a handful of older coticules and performance wise they have all performed in a relatively similar manner to Coticule-Ardennes stones.
As for my current coticule "collection" - due to its size, I hesitate to call it a collection - I have three coticules, two what I would consider 'full-sized' hones and one 2x10 cm (what most would consider a slurry stone). One of the full sized ones and the small one are recently mined, the other full-sized one is older, and quite fetching in its appearance. Which is why I have kept it. Its performance (i.e. end result) is pretty much indistinguishable from the other ones. I have kept the small one because it has a distinct character, a La Petite Blanche with very minor auto-slurrying (and a lovely blue side) which, combined with its small size, makes it a great stone for honing my honing skills.
In my opinion, there are a few good reasons to have an array of coticules, but performance is not really one of them; unless you count a user's preference for a particular stone because of its characteristics. My three hones all work fine and one of them would be all I would ever need. But I like their characteristics, both in use (there is a slight but distinct variance in behaviour) as well as in appearance. The appearance is the main reason I hang onto both full sized hones, though. It is the same reason why I have the number of razors I have: there are slight differences in behaviour but these are nuances; a well-made razor is a well-made razor is a well-made razor. Practically, you only need one. Why have more?
As for the quote from the late Neil Miller, I both disagree and disagree. When he said thatI cannot but agree wholeheartedly. I dare to wager that the majority of the regular coticule users would agree as well; in the end, they are tools, nothing more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil Miller
I do think however, that some people (Neil Miller among them) confuse romanticism with mystical worship or something silly like that. For me there is most definitely some romanticism involved: I shave with vintage razors, for equal romantic reasons - as well as practical result, but if I would only be interested in the result I would most likely end up with one vintage SE and a bunch of PTFE coated blades, or at least a whole lot less open razors. I simply love the idea of using a rock, ripped out of the earth's crust, turned into a functional tool by a skilful, passionate manufacturer to sharpen an old functional tool by a skilful, passionate manufacturer. This was, as I understand it, the reason coticule.be came into existence. The treatment on coticule.be of the tool that is the coticule hone, however, has been very pragmatic and not clouded by assumptions, mystification or pseudo-science.
With this part of the quote I disagree strongly, though:
I have not tried 30-50 coticules, but I have tried my fair share and have not found that hardness has anything to do with finishing properties as far as end result goes; speed can be a variable, but again I have not found this to correlate with hardness in any meaningful way. There is nothing magical about really hard stones, either. Neil did add that this was in his experience, as what I wrote is what it is in my experience. Neither should be taken as fact or the be-all and end-all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil Miller
As for the last bit of the quote, I have no idea where he pulled that one from. A razor can be both smooth and sharp, I think most of us here will agree on that. That said, Neil may very well have referred to the use of 'smooth' concerning coticules in particular and understood it as a euphemism; sadly, there is no way to be sure of what he meant.
As I see it, a coticule edge is not the sharpest you can get an edge that will shave and hold said edge. However, for me such an edge hits the perfect balance between cutting ability and skin friendliness. Also, one coticule will do, unless you like to have a bunch of pretty stones.