Thread: Question for BBW/Coticule Gurus

I recently won this combo BBW/Coticule off ebay. To me, at least, it is a beautiful hone. Beautiful patterns and a very cool coming together of the BBW/Coticule, can be seen on the sides. I have a few combo hones, but I have never seen the BBW side (on other combo hones) look like it does on this one. There are rather good sized patches of deep/dark blue in the surrounding brown of the BBW. I am including a couple pics to show you what I mean. Can anyone tell me what these patches are? And are they a bad thing in a BBW?

Thanks!

My guess is that those spots are actual Blue Belgian in the brown sedimentary layer and can not do the hone any harm. Interesting piece of rock!

I love the color transition on the side of your hone. I have a combo with the same dark spots on the BBW side. I seem to remember reading that the stuff is something that Ardennes concocted to fill irregular holes in the bbw but I'm not sure. Whether that is correct or if I imagined it and the spots are a natural phenomenon, one way or the other, it doesn't seem to affect the honing as I cannot feel the irregular spots through the blade on the hone.

Hi Jimmy,
This may sound stupid (since I know "virtually" nothing about hones ) and I do apologize in advance, but if they have concocted something to fill the holes, is it sound to consider such a stone a "natural"?

To me "Natural" would be nature made with man having very little to do in the design/engineering of it (short of cutting it into pieces etc...). As soon as man interferes to perfect the imperfections, that would be a "semi-natural" (for lack of better definition) stone to me.

Am I totally off base here?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I love the color transition on the side of your hone. I have a combo with the same dark spots on the BBW side. I seem to remember reading that the stuff is something that Ardennes concocted to fill irregular holes in the bbw but I'm not sure. Whether that is correct or if I imagined it and the spots are a natural phenomenon, one way or the other, it doesn't seem to affect the honing as I cannot feel the irregular spots through the blade on the hone.

That is surely a beautiful stone!

Darker spots and lines are often manganese-rich and seem to have no adverse effect on honing.

Jimmy - perhaps you are thinking about the old method of filling in holes and voids - beeswax/powdered stone/glue?

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

That is surely a beautiful stone!

Darker spots and lines are often manganese-rich and seem to have no adverse effect on honing.

Jimmy - perhaps you are thinking about the old method of filling in holes and voids - beeswax/powdered stone/glue?

Regards,
Neil

Yes, exactly Neil. IIRC Bart posted about it a couple of years ago.

Originally Posted by BladeRunner001

if they have concocted something to fill the holes, is it sound to consider such a stone a "natural"?

Robert, the way I understand 'natural' in terms of a coticule is that the stone is mined from a vein where the yellow and bbw join. That is why they are so rare in that form. From a practical point of view the yellow glued to the bbw is just as good but is a combo rather than a natural combo. At least that is my take. As far as patching irregularities with the mix Neil mentioned, that is practical too.

They aren't going to toss a good stone because of some relatively minor cosmetic issues. Matter of fact from what I've read on the forums and been told first hand by old barbers at one time the bbw was considered to be worthless as a honing surface and was merely used to reinforce the relatively fragile yellow stone.

Yes it is a beautiful stone. Even more so in person. I wish my camera was good enough to actually portray how nice it is in person.

Congrats! A very handsome hone indeed. The patterning is wholly natural; I couldn't tell you what the chemical make-up is though.

The effect is mostly seen in natural combination stones with a very undulating joint line. Often, black bulbs seem to be embedded just at that joint line. It does not hinder honing I think, but these BBW's are not as fine as the ones with small pinkish dots or Coticule inclusions.

The Coticule side is mostly hard and inclusions of quartz and/or wavy quartz(like) lines parallel to the joint line are not uncommon.

Two examples from my collection:

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Yes, exactly Neil. IIRC Bart posted about it a couple of years ago.

That's possible Jimmy, but I thought I read it in a post by Rob from Ardennes. I guess we are at that age when your memory begins to play tricks! Whatever age that is (attempts damage limitation!).

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

That's possible Jimmy, but I thought I read it in a post by Rob from Ardennes. I guess we are at that age when your memory begins to play tricks! Whatever age that is (attempts damage limitation!).

Regards,
Neil

I think you are correct in that Rob's post and not Bart's revealed that info... but I don't remember. As far as memory playing tricks, it seems to be at my current age ....... I don't remember for sure when it started.