Thread: Belgian Coticules

Originally Posted by ernestrome

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.

I'd have thought you'd also run a fairly high risk of scoring the coticle stone using a knife on it. If you damaged the stone you'd have to re-lap it flat before putting a razor on it.

I keep my knife stones seperate from my razor stones, I never mix them - the grits aren't really appropriate anyway.

Hmmm.... so I'm going to need a Norton 4k/8k afterall?

...even for touching-up a razor's edge?

no, not for touching up. I do almost all my honing on a coticule. I don't know what everyone is talking about.

The nagura stone is a piece of chalk. It provides some lubricity to the japanese stones which are harder than the belgian stones and need the nagura to start the slurry. The belgian stones can get a slurry going with a kitchen knife and water. This is NO problem! Lynn's video was made before I started having the belgians make me the coticule slurry stones which people are now using for getting a slurry going on belgian stones. The cotigura - so named to honor the Japanese tradition and to create the "set" of rubbing stones - is pure coticule. At $18 they're a pretty good buy.

Howard

Originally Posted by Howard

The nagura stone is a piece of chalk. It provides some lubricity to the japanese stones which are harder than the belgian stones and need the nagura to start the slurry. The belgian stones can get a slurry going with a kitchen knife and water. This is NO problem! Lynn's video was made before I started having the belgians make me the coticule slurry stones which people are now using for getting a slurry going on belgian stones. The cotigura - so named to honor the Japanese tradition and to create the "set" of rubbing stones - is pure coticule. At $18 they're a pretty good buy.

Howard

Hi Howard,

What slurry stone do you use on the Natural Coticule? I still really want one to go with my natural.

John

If you want to use a rubbing stone on a coticule or a blue belgian, try a Cotigura stone which is a piece of coticule. The Nagura you're referring to is a piece of chalk and a number of my customers have told me they have come to prefer raising a slurry with a piece of coticule over the nagura which is a piece of chalk (chalk doesn't cut or polish steel as it's too soft). Also, if you want a new Norton 4k/8k, I have them for $55 US.

Howard