Thread: The earthy smell of the coticule

I love the dank, earthy smell of the coticule, and I have one (the Salm) that smells overpoweringly earthy--the most fragrant coticule I've ever experienced. (And I savor every waft!)

I'm simply wondering, what natural ingredient(s) am I smelling?

Thanx,
Christopher

Originally Posted by CJBianco

I'm simply wondering, what natural ingredient(s) am I smelling?

Fossilised clay would be my guess. It is sedimentary rock, so it was a prehistoric seabed. Don't slate me if I am wrong people, just a guess.

I also like the smell of the Escher/thuringian. Tams have a nice smell too.

Upon rising in the morning, my Dragon's Tongue has a somewhat earthy odor.

Also my Nakayama Maruichi has a slight smell to it.

Fossilised clay would be my guess. It is sedimentary rock, so it was a prehistoric seabed. Don't slate me if I am wrong people, just a guess.

I also like the smell of the Escher/thuringian. Tams have a nice smell too.[/QUOTE]

yep your dead on

I think most hones, like slates, are metamorphic, caused by heat and pressure on sedimentary clay deposits, although not nearly as much heat and pressure as on some of the rocks that were deeper underground or closer to vulcanism.

The surprising thing about clay is how little changed it may remain, unless something like that happens to it. I remember a fascinating TV programme about the exploration of a vertical sink-hole in Derbyshire, where they found the bones of a prehistoric girl who had fallen down, been badly injured, and apparently took quite some time to die. Up against the cave wall there was a slope of soft, wet, clay, and in it they found the footprints she had made in an attempt to escape. They could have been made yesterday, for as long as clay is undisturbed and damp, there it sits forever.

I think mudstones and shales would wear too quickly to hone anything that requires precision. But if I were looking for a natural hone, slate is where I would look. The type of inclusions must be critical, and slate varies a lot in colour alone, reddish ones apparently having haematite, aka jeweller's rouge, in what grain size I wouldn't know. What I am pretty sure of, is that these rocks don't form in very small quantities, as some metal ores do. There is a lot of something good out there, if only we knew how to identify it.

Winston Churchill, on his way to one of his early wars, had a favour asked of him by a spiritualist society, who doubtless sensed his sympathy for anyone out of the ordinary. If he should have the misfortune to be killed, they wanted him to try to communicate with them. If anyone is unfortunate enough to break his coticule or any similar stone, it would he interesting to know whether it exhibits clear planes of cleavage.

I love the smell of Napalm in the...Ooops..Sorry, wrong forum...Coticules....Yes, Composed of Garnet's, mined in Belgium.....

I'm pretty sure that higashi-mono are shales.

Actually most rocks have a certain smell to them. I think it depends more the environment where they came from. Your probably smelling the results of being in the ground. Theoretically, a rock should have no smell with few exceptions like certain very porous ones that will absorb whatever it is exposed to.

Originally Posted by PDobson

I'm pretty sure that higashi-mono are shales.

Hello Phillip
I agree about the shale to a certain degree, although I suggest that the Kyoto stones are somewhat more exotic than the general shale/slate stone found in Europe and N. America that many of use equate with roof tiles and pooltable tops. The Kyoto stones from the Ultra Tamba Terrane have been exposed to magma for a "heat treatment" during the terranes migration from the Pacific Plate, where it was scraped off, to the Eruasian Plate and where it now lays like a scab over the mountains of Kyoto. It was during this transfer period that the chert-quartz within the clays of the original sediment, sort of toasted and became a high quality cutting agent with a particular super fine crystaline structure. The chert-quartz particles are mixed-in within the clays so a binder relationship is established. This is what makes this quartz different from the quartz locked up in granite like we see in general rock. In the Kyoto stones the quartz content is structured as individual particles too small to be seen by the naked eye rather than as bound groups or larger crystals you can hold in your hands. Call it stone or rock, the stones from Kyoto used for sharpening are something unique and this is why they smell like clay but cut like stone.

Originally Posted by Scipio

Fossilised clay would be my guess. It is sedimentary rock, so it was a prehistoric seabed. Don't slate me if I am wrong people, just a guess.

I also like the smell of the Escher/thuringian. Tams have a nice smell too.

I agree, I suspect it's fossilised clay. My J-Nat smells very earthy as well.

I might not slate you, but I will BBW you, as that's what's on the other side of my coti!

b'DUM - tish!