Thread: Advice on purchasing a coticule

Glad you got that figured out Marshal.

After reading through everything (again), I just ordered myself a 150x40 La Vienette Coticule.

So I ordered and paid for my Coticule last Thursday hoping it would be shipped the following day.

But I missed out and it looks like it will only be shipped this Friday.

Well at least once they do ship it does move fast though. Mine made it the following Monday, I was very impressed. The one that was sent to me was really good and flat so I was able to get right to honing, I'm thinking that Ardennes had lapped it before sending it out. Did you put on the comments that it was for finishing razors? I did and it seems I received a really good finisher.

I've only ever bought one coticule from Ardennes, and they were very helpful. I told them I wanted a large workhorse natural two sided hone for razors, preferably with a cosmetic issue with the hope that it would be cheaper. I told them that I was not in a rush for such a bargain to surface. A few months later, I got exactly that--a 3x10x1 inch beast with a trivial diagonal vein in one corner that looks like a crack but is just a vein variation and it has no effect on the hone's performance. The best part is that it was $150.

Before you get too excited, I think this was in 2009.

Originally Posted by Paul76

Well at least once they do ship it does move fast though. Mine made it the following Monday, I was very impressed. The one that was sent to me was really good and flat so I was able to get right to honing, I'm thinking that Ardennes had lapped it before sending it out. Did you put on the comments that it was for finishing razors? I did and it seems I received a really good finisher.

Yes, I did comment that it was for a straight razor.

Both of mine from Ardennes were *slightly* out of flat. One looked unlapped, but I think I asked for it that way, the other had a dip that looked like it was used. Nothing a couple minutes lapping couldn't fix

Yeah, they lap pretty easily.

They do lap easy. As I recall I lapped mine as a matter of standard procedure and was done faster than any other hone I've lapped to date. But I think that may also be what bit me in the end. I'll have to dig through my old thread and see just what all I did to it after tearing it up with my worn DMT, but I suspect the coticule didn't like the DMT and wound up with an issue as described earlier in the thread:

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

dinnermint makes an excellent point that I too have followed.

I NEVER use a diamond plate for raising slurry on a coticule, only another piece of coticule as a slurry stone. Why? Coticules are made from larger garnet crystals (think glass) and sharp shards of diamond will easily fragment those garnets, leaving sharp pieces in the slurry or sticking out of the substrate. Gently using a cotigura (small coticule hone meant for raising a slurry) will be more likely to release the garnets from the substrate without harm and it is their round soccer ball shape that makes them work so well. I have no proof of course, but it seems to work for me, so that's my theory.

I do use a diamond plate to initially flatten a coticule (I did it once, maybe 15 years ago) and after that I have cleaned the surface with a cotigura and only use that for cleaning, raising a slurry or refreshing the surface. My coticule is rather hard and does not seem to auto slurry like many of them do, so it has not dished on me. But even if it did, it would have a long way to go based on the old hones we occasionally find that were used until they looked like a saddle.

Regards

Christian

Of course the damage can be polished out. But I'm fairly certain after scrubbing the surface of my hone for a good long while with the slurry stone to do just that it's back out of flat. So maybe I'd have been better off to just take a razor to the stone and see what happens?

My La Veinette eventually arrived.




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