My coticule broke! :(

So here is what happend, I had just been done with honing a razor on my stone and i was very happy with the result. I layed the stone in its wooden box on a chair and took out my straight razor box where i keep all my stuff. Suddenly i hear i that something hits the floor wich btw has a carpet all over it. The stone had slided from the chair and down, not even 0,5 high. I pick it up and check it, its been splitted in the middle like someone had run a hot knife through it. I instatly sent a mail to the store i got it from, here their answer.

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"We're sorry you dropped the grinding stone so it broke. Grinding Stone is a natural product and the quality of it is based on what the performance outcomes at honing of knives and not on how it will withstand falls from heights. Unfortunately, it can be natural materials react like this".

And by the way its a Ardennes Coticule Selected honing stone 100x40 mm. Its a stone! isent it supposed to be a lil bit tougher?

Ummm...Things break if you drop them. The stone is still usable, so you're not out anything. In fact, you now have an extra BBW...so lucky you!

Hmm ok well thanks for the info, its still a bit annoying though:P.. JimR extra BBW? what do you mean?

Isn't that a combo? The bottom half looks blue to me. Or is it slate?

Yeah its a combo, its kind of blackish on one side :)

It could not have broke any better, the coticule layer is still intact. Just glue them back together and it will be fine.

I don't understand why you sent that email. You can't expect a seller to refund an item you broke. Coticules are actually known for being fragile hence they are sold with backing.

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Originally Posted by Sibban

Yeah its a combo, its kind of blackish on one side :)

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so now you have an extra BBW then.
What really is important is to not leave the stone on a chair always on a nice stable flat surface away from edges ( not like on your pics).
Also honing really happens on the coticule side so you are fine.

Your glass is half empty, not half full my friend... Sell the lower half. You have enough on the BBW side to last
awhile.

It's only a 10x4 cm stone so the Coti/BBW part is about 5-6mm thick. I wouldn't advice using that without extra backing.

I can understand your surprise and disappointment that such a small fall broke the stone. That said the company is 100% correct it is a natural material they are in no way responsible for it's durability. You could not have been any luckier with the way that the stone broke, just be grateful it broke the way it did and go buy a lotto ticket because you are a lucky guy!

I think Ardennes was very tactful, and correct, in their response.

I did not buy it from Ardennes Utopian, i got it as an x-mas present from my parents. It´s from a swedish site. The only one that has high grit honing stones :P.. Yeah it seems im stupid to lay it on a chair and you guys are right im lucky it broke the way it did. What kind of glue would you recomend?

You can use almost any glue. I've even used plain old Elmer's white glue, the stuff kids use, to glue hones successfully. You would not want such a water soluble glue on a hone you would soak, but since you don't soak a coticule, even it would work fine. The only kind of glue you need to be especially cautious with is one that expands due to a chemical reaction during the gluing process. An example is Gorilla Glue, which expands upon contact with water. Such a glue will work fine but you need be certain to apply uniform pressure during the clamping. Line each side with a piece of wood and then clamp it all together.

Hmm im thinking about 2 component epoxy glue, seems it would work fine? Thanks for all the info :)

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...-coticule.html

all vintage coticules that i've seen have been glued with water based glue so sooner or later they split in half. slow curing epoxy puts them back in a virtually unbreakable bond.

Ugh, that stinks. Luckily, it's still usable and a lesson is learned. I learned a lesson too. i ruined the dining room table while honing. Wife is making me buy a new one. Looks like I won't be purchasing any shaving stuff for a while.

Hahahaha damn that sucks even more jcsixx:)

As per Utopian in the first reply, you have benefited from your negligence, you are no worse off for having an extra BBW. I would get a chunky piece of hardwood, router or chisel out a space the size of the stone a few mm deep & set the stone in there, effectively countersinking it.

I don't know what response you were expecting by contacting the vendor, but you have a very weak expectation as to their liability for what you believe to be a defect, when you caused it to break! Yes it is a stone, but it is a soft type of sedimentary varying greatly in hardness to what you might call a 'stone.'

I say you are lucky the coticule itself is not at all damaged, rather only an artificial joint has come undone. Learn from your mistakes.

Scipio I dident contact them to make them pay for it or try to play on their liability, i contacted them to get answers. This is my first and only honing stone, how would i know that its such a delicate stone? But next time i have any kind of troubles similar to this ill get one here and talk to ppl instead to get some info on stuff. So exscuse me for not being so experinced to know that. And thanks for the tip about the getting it into a wood piece, but ill think im going to glue it together and NEVER again set it on a chair.

I've used 2-part epoxy to glue them back together quite successfully. Coticules are natural stones and I've had several split like yours. Consider yourself lucky that it didn't break through the yellow layer.

I would not use the yellow layer without a better backing though. It is quite thin and whether you glue it back to the BBW that split off or a piece of hard wood, it definitely needs backing before use.

What do you mean with "backing" Harvitz81? Oh and thanks about the advice on 2-part epoxy, now im sure ill use that since i got some for free yesterday;)

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Originally Posted by Sibban

What do you mean with "backing" Harvitz81?

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Reinforce the coticule layer with something. If you decide to glue the two pieces together that should do it. You got quite lucky actually, coticule chips or breaks quite easily, as do other honing mediums.

My slurry stone came apart during use (too much suction, I guess). I used crazy glue and stood my mini-anvil on top of the stone while it dried. Seems to work so far.

Not sure if it's any consolation, but this is what happened to an exceptionally fast yet fine Old Rock of mine in transit on its way back home from a friend:

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that is a disheartening for sure.

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Originally Posted by Scipio

As per Utopian in the first reply, you have benefited from your negligence, you are no worse off for having an extra BBW. I would get a chunky piece of hardwood, router or chisel out a space the size of the stone a few mm deep & set the stone in there, effectively countersinking it..

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I could be woefully wrong here but, FWIW I really like this Idea. If this happened to me I would make a box for both of them about half their depth and use one as a combo and the BBW as a hone/oversized slurry stone. Just make sure to be VERY careful when flipping the combo. I would think that the box would provide the support needed for honing but I don't know how fragile they are when that thin. I have one 150x50 combo coti/bbw and one small #7 bout both of which are pretty thick. They seem fairly durable to me (especially compaired to my naniwas) but I haven't drop checked them yet.

I really don't know if this idea would work. Still, just the fact that something this amazing happened as a result of an accident, shouldn't it be taken as a sign? Maybe COTICLEASE (?), Roman god of the Quarry, has special things in store for your "2" stones we couldn't begin to fathom!

I'm assuming that this is a natural combo from the posts. From my iPhone I really cant tell if the pictures are of a combo, slate backing, or thin combo glued to slate. Is that glue residue on the stones or is that how it naturally looks. If it is slate then forget all this and just glue it.

Either way though you are one lucky dude. You really should buy a lottery ticket (one is all you need).

Sean

Maybe shoot Ardennes an email with some pix and ask for a suggestion or two on how to glue it back together?

They were very helpful when one of mine fissured..

What are the odds? It looks like a clean "break". Are you sure it wasn't glued were it split, before?

These stones are very easy to be glued. Glue it cautiously and there will be no visible trace of this accident.

Also you will never wear down the BBW part to the point where the glue line is. You should consider yourself very lucky that the coti side isn't hurt in any way.