Thread: Flee market stones

You can hone on slate, at least some of them. Thuringians are slate including Eschers.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

You can hone on slate, at least some of them. Thuringians are slate including Eschers.

Yes, slate is used for honing, I have two Welsh slates but for the purpose of this conversation, no, you cannot hone on the slate backing of a Coticule, It's just there as reinforcement because the actual Coti is quite thin.

I studied mine carefully yesterday and it's not a hone, just a bit of unusable slate, some coti's do come with BBW on the backside and they obviously are intended to be used but the slate, no.

If any of the experienced guys feels i am wrong please let me know but i was told specifically that i could not use the slate on the back of mine when I bought it.

Originally Posted by STF

Yes, slate is used for honing, I have two Welsh slates but for the purpose of this conversation, no, you cannot hone on the slate backing of a Coticule, It's just there as reinforcement because the actual Coti is quite thin.

I studied mine carefully yesterday and it's not a hone, just a bit of unusable slate, some coti's do come with BBW on the backside and they obviously are intended to be used but the slate, no.

If any of the experienced guys feels i am wrong please let me know but i was told specifically that i could not use the slate on the back of mine when I bought it.

HA! Poppycock! Yeah, a chunk of chert is not intended to be honed on either but that hasn't stopped me. Hell, I will try any old rock as a hone. You know how people say, "a person who knows how could hone on a brick"? It ain't gonna be easy but we'll see.

Originally Posted by STF

If any of the experienced guys feels i am wrong please let me know but i was told specifically that i could not use the slate on the back of mine when I bought it.

You can rub any piece of metal against any rock. Sometimes, what happens is not so good for the purpose of shaving ; (

From Ardennes Coticule:
“A Coticule whetstone consists of 2 layers. The Coticule top layer has a thickness of between 5 and 10 mm, depending on the Coticule seam (not every Coticule seam in our quarry is of the same thickness). This Coticule layer is glued on a substrate of unusable black slate. This substrate is used as a base as Coticule is a rather brittle material.”

Notice their choice of the word “unusable” when referring to the slate.

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In my experience, a bbw will appear a bit mottled. If slate then it will be a solid, darker color.

One thing not mentioned thus far .... pressure while lapping. Do not bear down with a lot of force. That will create deep scratch lines that will be difficult to remove with the next, finer, lapping tool. The 400 grit is fine to start with but it will wear down your diamond plate rather quickly. I would suggest using wet/dry sandpaper instead for both lapping sessions. I usually stop at 1000 grit.

Just my 2¢

I hope everyone realizes that was as much humor as anything. It is true that I look at rocks everywhere I go and see potential hones but to say "any old rock" is not entirely accurate. Some are in fact just a rock. I would however say that I lean toward bravery and find out the hard way sometimes that I was wrong. Still sometimes I am rewarded with a new hone.

I hope I didn't offend anyone. My apologies if I have.