Thread: "man-made" coticule.... right?

I found at a local sale what looks to me to be a "man-made" coticule, meaning the kind made from coticule dust and shaped into a hone with some kind of binder. I've just never actually handled a man-made one so I thought I'd share it and see what you guys think of it. At first I sort of scoffed at it thinking that, because it appears factory made, that it couldn't compare to my natural coticules but it does a terrific job actually. It's about 7 x 2 inches.

I'm by no means an expert on man-made coticules, but I've seen a few and have never seen one with (what looks to be) manganese deposits like that. interesting for sure.

It crossed my mind that it might be manganese deposits and therefore probably natural but then looking at it I decided I thought it was a crack with staining in it. The rest of it just looks so uniform, like a solid mass of the same color stuff, thought it must be man-made.

Is that a crack or manganese deposit?

Here is an interesting thread from Razor and Stone on a similar stone with participation of some old time, well respected honers.

I believe there is a video on Coticules, by Sham, Hibudgl saying the best coticule edge he had honed was from a synthetic Coticule hone.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Is that a crack or manganese deposit?

Here is an interesting thread from Razor and Stone on a similar stone with participation of some old time, well respected honers.

I believe there is a video on Coticules, by Sham, Hibudgl saying the best coticule edge he had honed was from a synthetic Coticule hone.

I think it's a crack but I don't want to pick at it to find out. Looking at how the edge is breaking away along the line it seems a crack. The hone has the earthy smell of a coticule when wet and honing, and the edge is excellent and has the comfortable coti feel. The thread mentioned above says something about applying vinegar and looking for fizzing to see if it is man-made as the binder will fizz. It was mentioned only very uniform dust was collected for the man-made coticules and that would be consistent with the very uniform look of this one, aside from the suspected crack. Thanks for the link!

Here it is, starts at about 6.15

You can glue the chip and the crack with Super Glue, CA. Clean the chip and crack with a toothbrush and diluted Simple Green.

Make a dam with some masking tape and fill the chip about a quarter of the way with baking soda, then drop in some thin CA glue, add more baking soda, in glue in layers until just over filled.

Let it dry overnight and lap it flat. On the crack, just layer on CA till overfilled.

It will lap smooth with a 300-400 diamond plate and will prevent further cracking and chipping.


Be careful washing and soaking, I melted a small one with oven cleaner, a long time ago thinking it was a natural coticule.

Nice find, Enjoy.