Thread: A 10 inch old stock Old Rock

When we met at Ardennes Coticules in memoriam of Henk Bos a few weeks ago, Maurice Celis took us by surprise, when he got three larger boxes with coticules from an old stock, that he had acquired only some days before. So fortunately the participants of the meeting had the chance to be the first to look at these great hones and to buy some from the lot. And even more fortunately for me personally, since I arrived one day earlier to organize the meeting together with Maurice, I was the first to look in these virgin boxes.
The hones came from an old stock of a store in Antwerp/ Belgium, which was closed some day in the 1930’s if I remember correct. Since this time the coticules had been holding out for their rediscovery and put into usage.

So here is one stone I immediately felt in love with and that was the first I acquired (wasn’t the only one over the whole loooong weekend… ).





The remark “Old Rock” written on the stone by pencil is original from the old owner of the store, but also Maurice clearly identified the hone as a typical old rock hone. And if there is one person that can identify old rock hones, it would be Maurice Celis, since he had been working in the old rock mine for a certain time in the past.

The hone is yellow-ochre with some light red-brownish areas on the top (maybe some discoloration – but the typical old rock layer is not a La Grosse Blanche) and is quite hard. But it is a very fast stone, the slurry gets dark within a few strokes with a razor and it’s an absolute pleasure to hone on.