Thread: Coticule Resotrations (pic heavy)

Nicely done. Great results and nice pics. Thanks for sharing.

Tim great job. i thought at first they are 8k Japanese synthetic stones. color looks like very close.
Very nice stones indeed.

Very professional looking job. Never would have thought something like that could be done with vintage stones in not so good condition. You certainly have brought them back to life, my hats off to you.

Very impressive.

I'd read about using slurry powder mixed with beeswax here before (probably from you!). I'll have to give that or epoxy a try. I was actually going to use epoxy to glue the stones themselves, but I had difficulty using it in woodworking years ago. I'm sure they have much-improved epoxies nowadays.

I have a Jnat that has a toxic inclusion that I was planning on chipping out and replacing with epoxy and powdered slurry from the stone. I havent got around to doing it yet but this is what I found. There is an epoxy that is called PB-11, it comes in a white color and is compatable with any universal colorant. I was going to use it on the working face so I inquired to the largest size of particles. The binders are talc at 1.2 micron but is very soft so should break down easily and would be ok, the other is clay at .5 micron, I figured that would be acceptable. I asked to see how hard it was when dried and all they could say is it dries hard but not very hard, I didnt know how I should interperate that. While I was lapping the stone I held it over wax paper so all slurry would fall and be caught on it, after a couple of days of sitting I had a lot of nice powder. I did keep it covered to keep dust out. My stopping point was the only colorant I could find was called pearlex and contained a bunch of small pearls of minerals, I felt they would be too large and would get pulled to the surface and cause scratches on my blade while honing, but I am not sure. I have found out since that if you go to a paint store they have liquid colorants, but one usually has to buy the whole pint, which wasnt so bad but I figured I would have to buy 2 or three different colors in order to get the color I was looking for and for the teaspoon(or less) I needed, I just couldnt bring myself to do it. Some one with a friend who mixes paint would be ideal. The patch you are looking to do though wouldnt be as critical since I doubt you will ever get the coticule wore down to the point you get into your patch. Just my 2 cents.

Those coticules look great, I have been having pretty good luck keeping my coticule AD under control, I dont know how much longer I will be able to hold out though with threads like this. Nice work, wonderful stones.

Nice job.
When i first had cotucule separate i talked to howard and he recommended epoxy, so that's what i've been using. I use the 24h one as he does. There's no way to separate the pieces after it polymerizes, it's pretty much the best bond after having a natural combo. Of course it's also absolutely unnecessary.

Can someone explain to me why the mines use slate for backing? With the demand for double stones at a significant premium over 'sets', it seems like throwing away money. I would happily buy glued doubles as an alternative to coticules on slate, and suspect I'm one of many. Can someone relay this into a sympathetic ear?

Your work makes the perfect arguement.

Excellent work on restoring those stonse! A good choice for filling in that space would be some T-88 2 part epoxy, and a color dye. I would recommend stopping by your local woodcraft (if you can) and bring the stone with you. They should be able to match the color with a dye...

Originally Posted by mitchshrader

Can someone explain to me why the mines use slate for backing? With the demand for double stones at a significant premium over 'sets', it seems like throwing away money. I would happily buy glued doubles as an alternative to coticules on slate, and suspect I'm one of many. Can someone relay this into a sympathetic ear?

Ask Rob, or ask Bart to ask Rob (since Bart seems quite tight with the quarry). Ardennescoticule makes the decisions what to glue the coticules on, so I suspect it may be just more economical for them to do it this way. Actually if you do a search Rob may have already spoken on the subject. I vaguely remember reading his description on how they do it, don't remember any 'why'.

Originally Posted by mitchshrader

Can someone explain to me why the mines use slate for backing? With the demand for double stones at a significant premium over 'sets', it seems like throwing away money. I would happily buy glued doubles as an alternative to coticules on slate, and suspect I'm one of many. Can someone relay this into a sympathetic ear?

Your work makes the perfect arguement.

I would think it's because of the Blue's newly established honing ability. Instead of just being regarded as waste and thus suitable as coticule reinforcement, they now have a value of their own. So, another type of 'waste' produced during the mining is used instead.