Thread: Did I find a Coticule?

I was shocked to have a package delivered to me a few minutes ago. This vendor wasted no time in getting my purchase to me!

The first thing I pulled out and unwrapped was the coticule. Except for tapering off at one edge it it perfectly flat according to the straightedge at my desk) and smooth. It's also incredibly heavy, because it has been mounted to a hefty hunk of slate instead of a BBW. A slight disappointment, but nothing I won't get over.

Next came the Genco cushioned strop/hone. The strop on the back isn't in great shape, but the hone is just fine.

The next item was the greenish-grey mystery hone. One edge is partially marked Exide with a star to the right of the text, and I can tell that it was at one time glued to another piece. There's still remnants of glue on the rough side and the text is cut in half horizontally along that surface. The surface is NOT smooth and will take a good bit of lapping to get smooth again. Is it worth it?

The two paddle strops came next. One is hot, but the other may be able to be revived if I can remove the old leather and replace it with some new material. The back sides of both were grooved along the length of the paddle and appear to have been pasted with a black substance. Maybe something like the black Dovo paste?

Then I found the Pike strop hone. The hone itself needs to be lapped to remove some surface scratches and smooth two small edge chips, but overall it seems to be in great shape. The leather on the stop feels smooth but dry. I'm not sure if it can be saved. I attempted to remove the strop from the honem but it's seated pretty tightly. If I didn't know better I's say it's been glued in place. Anyone familiar with these? Can I remove/replace the leather? The grain appears to be more like pigskin than cowhide. It has a distinctive "pebbled" appearance.

The last thing out of the box was the chipped mystery hone. After some rubbing and squinting at the text at the top I realized I had an Apart hone. The pictures show that it's got some edge chipping and chunks missing from the top, but it's still smooth, even on spots where it's been chipped. Someone must have liked this one to have taken the trouble to lap and smooth it after the chips occurred. The back side is still in great shape. I think I remember Ron commenting positively on these. I sure hope so.

I guess I'll be having a lapping party sometime soon. Then I just have to decide if I can bear to part with any of them.

- Mark (S-4-C)

P.S. - The narrow metal bit shown in the pics didn't arrive. Not sure if it was overlooked or what. Still, I don't know what I'd do with it if I got it, though I was curious to see what it was, or even to see if it was really supposed to be lumped with the hones.

All I could find was a short reference to C. Pickle Austria Apart Hone????

Yep. It doesn't help that the Search feature filters out "Apart" as being too common a word. Google helped a bit, but I still can't find the posts that I thought I had read in the past.

Google is good but your right if the word is to common you may get a result that has nothing to do with the search material.

Puffah endorsed the 'Apart' hone, as did Suzuki on B&B.