Thread: Belgian Coticules

That's it! www.axminster.co.uk is the site - thank you PuFF!!

Keep in mind that a Nogura stone is a specific stone which is very soft actually its like chalk and is designed to work with the 12K Japanese stones. The similar stones they sell for coticules are different, much harder like the coticules themselves. I'm not sure the nogura would work on a coticule. I've actually tried them and found no difference. With the 12 K yes the coticule no.

Originally Posted by convair580

Try www.japanwoodworker.com for Nagura stones, and the Kitayama 12000 grit stone Lynn referred to.

The 10000k stone sold by axminster for £37 is supposedly the same as the kitayama 12k (sometimes this same stone sold as 8K) as they are both made by matsunaga, who also make the sun tiger and king stones. Also leasingly the stone sells in the US for around $70, so we are not being ripped off for once.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Keep in mind that a Nogura stone is a specific stone which is very soft actually its like chalk and is designed to work with the 12K Japanese stones. The similar stones they sell for coticules are different, much harder like the coticules themselves. I'm not sure the nogura would work on a coticule. I've actually tried them and found no difference. With the 12 K yes the coticule no.

Thanks, bigspendur. I thought it would be OK as it's what Lynn uses with his coticule in his shaving world DVD. Of course I'm not using the coticule(s) as a finishing stone - I've got three of them (well two; one is double-sided) to use from scratch for a new edge, touching up a dulled edge and a finishing stone.

I bought some Japanese water stones from Axminster Tools a while back for my knives, and the 1200 grit stone came with a Nagura stone to use with it.

What you really need is a Belgian "bout". This is an irregularly shaped small Belgian stone. This is what is needed to generate a slurry on a yellow Belian coticule.

If you can, get a "bout" with both sides, yellow and blue, being made of the natural stone. Then you can use the dark side of the "bout" to generate a slurry on your Belgian blue stone.
The slurry will increase the cutting effectiveness a lot.

Hi Randy,

Do you have any of these for sale yet?

John

Originally Posted by randydance062449

What you really need is a Belgian "bout". This is an irregularly shaped small Belgian stone. This is what is needed to generate a slurry on a yellow Belian coticule.

If you can, get a "bout" with both sides, yellow and blue, being made of the natural stone. Then you can use the dark side of the "bout" to generate a slurry on your Belgian blue stone.
The slurry will increase the cutting effectiveness a lot.

Well my Nagura stone arrived from Axminster.co.uk. Delivery was pretty fast. I have no razors that need honing right now (well, except for the one that I sent to LX Emergency!), so I'm going to give it a go with a dulled kitchen knife. If I can get this to work, I should be able to touch-up on a dulled razor when the time comes.

Originally Posted by rum

Well my Nagura stone arrived from Axminster.co.uk. Delivery was pretty fast. I have no razors that need honing right now (well, except for the one that I sent to LX Emergency!), so I'm going to give it a go with a dulled kitchen knife. If I can get this to work, I should be able to touch-up on a dulled razor when the time comes.

I seem to remember someone here having a horrible experience when honing a knife on a coticule. I did a search, but I couldn't find the link. I would hold off on putting a dull knife on such an expensive piece of equipment.

Originally Posted by 19george

I seem to remember someone here having a horrible experience when honing a knife on a coticule. I did a search, but I couldn't find the link. I would hold off on putting a dull knife on such an expensive piece of equipment.

A coticule is a finishing or polishing stone, the penultimate step in a sharpening process before stropping. It would take for ever to sharpen a dull knife on such a stone.