Thread: Thuringian Vs. Kosher Coticule

I'm debating between purchasing a Thuringian from Timbertools and getting Howard at The Perfect Edge to get me one on the ultra high grade Kosher coticules. What do you guys think would make for a better finishing stone? Or should I throw both options out and look for a vintage coticule/Thuringian?

-Hank

If you ask Howard he will tell you that all of his coticules perform equally well, and if you spend the extra 30% more for a Kosher Grade you are paying for the appearance. He only purchases "select grade" from the mine and all of his stones that I have used have performed equally well for me. I would recommend that you purchase one of his normal select grade 6X2 stones which will give you a great stone for a very reasonable price and then go from there. After that the quality of the razor will make a much larger difference in the resulting edge and quality of shave than the very small differences among other ultra high quality stones and the variations within the same high quality stone type imo.

What are your other hones?

Thuringians are nice finishing stones but Coticules cut faster, so the best choice would depend on what else you are using.

Can't comment on the thuringian, but I know that the additional fee for a kosher hone is for how it looks.
Kosher coticules ar euniform of color, and as close to white as possible if I recall correctly.

They don't necessarily perform any better than howards other coticules.
I asked him the same thing once, but I ended up buying a select grade coticule which works very well.

Ok so I now know that the Kosher coticule is a bit of a waste, so if I do decide to buy a coticule it will be a normal select grade from Howard. I know that this is opening up another can of worms, but how much better are the vintage coticules/thuringians compared to the new ones?

-Hank

Different people are going to have different opinions and advice. I have honed a lot of razors on a lot of high quality stones, and my opinion based on my personal experiences is that once you are at the really high quality high grit stone level (and dial the razor in on that stone) the differences among razors (steel, heat treatment, and grind) will make a much more substantial difference in the resulting edge than the variations among the high quality stones. Howard's "new" coticules have worked just as well as the vintage coticules that I have used; I have never tried the "new" escher/thuringian type hones so I can't comment on them. I say new with quotation marks because all the coticules that you can get are very very old (we are talking many many thousands of years) regardless of when they were actually removed from the mine. Furthermore I am not so sure that I could tell you the difference between a razor that was properly honed to perfection on a quality coticule and a razor that was honed on another high quality stone like an Escher, Nakayama, or Shapton. Maybe some people can, but the differences are usually pretty small and could be attributed to someone's expectations going into the shave. On the other hand I can easily tell the difference between different types of properly honed razors by shaving with them. Some just take a better edge than others because of many factors, I think the least of which is whether the coticule that the razor was honed on was vintage or "new". Just my .02; others are likely going to feel somewhat differently.

David

P.S. Another great finishing stone that you might want to look into is a Nakayama from Old_School. I like mine so much that I bought two back-ups

The most likely difference between new and vintage could be that the quarry owners could be more picky about what they sold. These days there are a lot less mines, with a lot less produce so perhaps themark is set lower.

But my coticule from Howard is new, and it is a great stone.

My 12incher is a vintage Coticule(Rob at Ardennes said it wasn't mined at his place), my little selected Coticule is new(ish)
The BIG one is harder and has more colours in it, it's no where near as flawless looking as my little selected Coticule but seems to be a much finer hone. It can cut fast though, if you use a slurry as it's surface is vast

The best all around stone out there is the coticule, it'll cut through the grit scratches left by nearly all of the common lower grit hones, especially if you form a slurry on it, and also polishes very nicely without the slurry.

So, a safe bet is the Coticule, it'll do the job, and well too.

True. The coticule is the most versatile of all.
Used with a thick muddy slurry, it eats away metal at a serious rate. I once took out major nicks and de-warped an edge with a coticule. In only 14 hours...

the slurry really makes it an allround stone, allowing you to either polish or remove metal.