Thread: Flaky Coti

Originally Posted by eKretz

Sometimes you can alleviate the problem with CA. Get the very thin stuff like water and dribble it into the crack. Then place a piece of waxed paper over it and clamp something flat over the top until it dries, then relap the stone. I've done this on one or two problem spots with good results. You might have to reapply the CA after many lappings if it doesn't penetrate all the way to the bottom of the fissure.

Thin CA (superglue) works, I've tried it successfully myself (without the waxed paper).

Cheers
Jörg

It can be done without the waxed paper and clamping too, but doing so keeps the gap as small as possible.

With the weathering issue you never know how far it goes. You can start lapping it and if you are lucky you will at some point reach solid rock. The question is how much if any rock will be left after lapping.

Originally Posted by Vasilis

As always, you are right bigspendur. Coticule is a very vulnerable type or rock to the elements. BBW not so much. Visiting the quarry, we saw tons of coticule laying around, yet all of them were useless as a hone. Beautiful, big pieces that looked flawless, yet were crumbling into sand and flakes if you picked them up. Even as little as a year or two of exposed stone are enough to make it unsuitable as a hone. We could collect pieces, but nobody left with anything big enough that couldn't fit in a pocket. With Mr. Maurice permission of course.

Those weathered stones that crumbled easily would sure be fun to play with. Pulverize them finely and have premade dry slurry. Seperate the garnets and make a garnet paste using them.

These are just the first thoughts that popped into my head but I could see some interesting/fun experiments.

It also could be used just as a slurry stone, or cut into multiple slurry stones.

I have a coticule that is dished at least a quarter inch. I've been using the high ends for making slurry for the past 7+ years. I figure it will be flat in another 50 years or so.