Thread: Different styles of BBW/Coti

So I don't hijack the other thread (or add more to it) I thought I should start another thread.

Some great info as to the liniage of coticule stones was popping up in the Coti Combo thread and I found it very interesting. Would this info be easier to get form a sorce already out there or can we put that info here? What ever works best.

Here is a few pics of the BBW/Coti I have. Family heirloom

Now I'm understanding that this kind of bbw/coti is a bonded piece that is not made any longer, by 30+ years, is that correct?

What other "markers" can we look for to "guess" how old our coticules are?

With all the Coti finds out there lately I'm starting to hit any out of the way antique shops... here's hopeing

It looks like a vintage combo, when they were gluing BBW to the Coti's, I'm no expert, but maybe Utopian may know, you could contact Rob Celis at Ardennes, he's a member here, but is extremely busy lately, so he hasn't been on in a while...
Rich

It was my grandfathers, I saved it from my stepfather he doesn't use stones anymore and had it tossed in a drawer with all sorts of sandpapers and stones of stuff... it was a mess. This stone was flattened(ish) on a heavy grit belt sander at some time. For years I have seen this thing just floating around in that drawer. After a while, seeing pics of coticules here, I started getting excited that it may well be a coticule. I asked if I may have it and he gave me the stones I was interested in. After lapping it I was all giddy After posting it in a thread here to confirm my thoughts I was very happy to have saved this from obscurity.

Now I want to get another one just so I don't wear this one out using it all the time

I understand. Hang on to it. The blue side will create a purple slurry and the yellow side is like a dull white slurry, more or less. It's quite versatile, works good when you use a slurry stone. I'm probably telling you what you already know...Rich

I don't know exactly how many thousands (?) of years it took for the sedimentary rock that we know as the coticule and Belgian blue to form. The way I understand it whether the coticule was dug out of the ground 100 years ago or yesterday one is really as old as the other. So out of more than a dozen mostly vintage coticules my favorite is a recently mined natural.

The way I understand it the sharpening efficacy of the blue wasn't appreciated years ago. I have proof of this in two hones I own that the company named "Old Rock" and their competitor "Deep Rock" mined and sold. Both natural yellow/blue and they glued a large label over the blue. When they were digging into a vein if the blue was large enough to back the coticule apparently they left it in place. Otherwise they glued a blue onto the yellow for support only. These days of course the sharpening qualities of the blue are appreciated and the natural brings a premium.

I am not sure of when or why they began using slate as a backing for the yellow but when they did use the blue they considered it merely a backing and not a hone. Old barbers that I bought coticules from twenty five years ago told me that the dark side was just a backing and not for honing. Sounds strange but that is the story the way it was explained to me and backed up by what the barber's told me.

Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

Now I want to get another one just so I don't wear this one out using it all the time

By all means get another one ..... or more... but you would have to do a heap of honing to wear that yellow out. My guess is you could use it your whole life and pass it on to your grand kids to use after you're gone. Look at the stone where the blue meets the yellow. If there is a glue joint you can see it with a magnifying glass. From the photo it looks like a natural but it can be deceiving because they left blue on the underside sometimes and then glued a thicker blue on anyway.

Ya any natural rock is as old as the rock that popped up 300 years ago, last year, and still underground. I think I am always looking at what any one generation has done to the design of any one product. You always see slight variations in things as different sets of awareness vs advancements are conserned. Now days you see changes every year in the same design, and some make NO sence, while back a few years the changes where different (seems to me). Look at cookbooks before WWII, very different meaning to the same listed ingredients

Interesting what you mention about the BBW sides. Explains why so many older natural combo's have such a thin yellow left, wear posably. While the BBW side was never touched...

It is glued, the glue is almost all gone though. All round the hone there is a 1/16" or more erroded gap between the two pieces. I'm thinking of adding a little epoxy into the bigger holes between the hones.

I checked mine and it's not glued. I did talk to the lady at the antique store and asked about the history of where that stone came from. She told me that a guy sold it to her along with the Bengall wedge I bought with it. The Bengall has bone scales and appears pretty darn old so the impression I got was the BBW/Coticule came in with the razor from a family estate sale.
I do love this stone!

My understanding is that they haven't bonded blue to yellow in over 60 years but that's probably an estimate. Mind getting the thing in too much water as they bonded them with some kind of hide glue that can dissolve. I had one guy send me one of these to glue it back together. I just used a high quality epoxy and it was fine. Ready for another 60 years!