Thread: Narrow vintage BBW

This is a BBW that was used to sharpen skates and because of that it was pretty scratched up on both sides. There were several chips missing from the edges but neither side was dished.

The color is fairly uniform compared to my other BBWs but it does have some whitish speckles. Could that be Coticule? I can't feel the speckles when I run my finger over them.

The size is 23.1 x 3.6 x 1.3 cm.

Very nice hone!

I can't really see the speckles too well, but maybe Bart will come along and help out with his vast knowledge

Very nice find! Congrats!

Nice stone, I agree that the speckles could be coticle, its not uncommon.

i've had few hones with this type of blue with white/pink speckles. i haven't noticed any effect of those on function, so i haven't been concerned much what they are.

Lap it.

If they're embedded hard inclusions ie, sand grains, they'll break free and leave pits. If they're coticule they will break up about as fast as the BBW and remain approximately even with the surface. If it's sand grains, the stone is suitable for garden tools and suchlike, not knives and razors. It's still useful though.

The stone is lapped in the second and third (wet) pic. The speckles didn't leave any pits and because I can't feel them I'm sure they're not an issue performance wise.

I have a coticule with a trail of blue speckles and those can be felt.

That is a lovely hone!

I have a similar, but larger BBW with speckles - Rob at Ardennes Coticule selected it for me personally when I asked for a fast-cutting BBW. He says that a preponderance of coticule speckles makes it cut both faster and finer than BBWs without these speckles - mine is certainly fast and would be roughly equivalent to 5000+ grit if a grit rating could be applied.

Regards,
Neil