Thread: Coticule / Natural hone help

ok, so not too long ago I received a coticule from a member here and have since obtained another.
now the first coticule I know is a La Nouvelle vein coti and is a VERY slow cutter with just water and comparibly fast on slurry, but I know this from the information the previous owner (Disburden) supplied me with. And my second was a VERY lucky grab from the 'bay a Glued cot/BBW.

so my main question is this, with my new coti how do I know what to do? I mean obviously I need to play around with it a little but how? what do you do to figure out how a new coti or any natural stone works? I know the basic two check cutting speed with and without slurry but are there any other plans of attack I can use?

my second is does anyone else have a coti that looks like this (the longer coti), seen another like this, have any idea how old it may be? I love the look and the inclusions that may look like chips have gotten bigger after lapping a 3-5mm dip out of the center.

the short, stout lighter coloured one is the La Novelle. The long skinny one is the new one, it has a slight green tinge to it and deffinately feels (when honing) rougher than the other.

Thank you for reading my long winded question ^_^

Donald