Coticule?

Hi Guys

This was in a previous thread but I think it got buried as it was in the newbies section. I have had this stone kicking around for ages from my days in the kitchen, and it sounds from all descriptions like a Coticule. Can anyone in the know take a look and let me know what they think?

I have a Tam O'Shanter stone on order (thanks Coully you are a gentleman), and was wondering should I use this (if it indeed is a coticule) after the tam for a final polish before stropping?

Thanks for the input

Si

Yes, that certainly looks like a yellow coticule bout.
you can definitely use it as a final polisher.

Just make sure it is lapped flat. If it has been used for kitchen utensils, it is almost guaranteed to have a wobbly surface, even though you may not see this with the naked eye.

OK back to noob questions - should I lap this with a flat sharpening stone? It is pitted and pinched to heck and would need about a mm off it to bring it totally flat. Would a nice big sharpening stone do the job?

Cheers

Si - desperately trying to get by on what he already has...

Search the forum for some tips and tricks regarding the lapping

There are several ways to do it....

If you don't have a lapping stone, get some very good sandpaper that won't embed grit in your stone; Keith at handamerican.com sells excellent stuff very cheap. If you're taking off a millimeter then you'll want around 300 grit. Lay it on a tile or anything you know is completely flat, wet the paper and do figure eights with the stone until the pits are out. When it's good and flat it will stick to the paper&tile with great suction. You can then use a finer (1000) grit sandpaper to smooth it, but oddly enough with the coticules this never seems necessary. Coarse-on-fine in this case seems to work great.

Don't forget to round/bevel the edges. Your bout seems to have some dimples at the edge, worth getting out or smoothing.

Just be sure to use waterproof sandpaper, and wet it before use.

Are you guys sure it's a coticule? Surface looks a bit coarse and "freckled" to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kees

Are you guys sure it's a coticule? Surface looks a bit coarse and "freckled" to me.

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Fairly sure yes.
I have one that looks like that as well, though I don't use it for finishing razors.
My mother once bought it. For sharpening regular knives and tools it is fine, but it needs a good lapping before you should put a razor to it.

Does seem to be abit course. But it does look like a coticule.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kees

Are you guys sure it's a coticule? Surface looks a bit coarse and "freckled" to me.

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Yeah they are freckles, which is why I took such a close up. They are a light brown colour, mixed in with the hazy white of the background.

I have looked at pictures of Coticules online and there seems to be little consistency. Is there some way to test a grit that doesnt involve electron microscopes and other things that may be out of my budget?

Does anyone else use such a coticule for final polishing before hitting the strop?

Cheers

Si

Take an ordinary microscope and look for the garnets in the slurry.

Make some slurry, put it on a slide, use 400x magnification. Look here for what you need to see: http://www.belgischerbrocken.com/

Click info's and then: Mikroskopisch Ergebnis etc not the first picture but the third because the crystals are red. Unfortuantely I never managed to upload pictures for SRP.