eBay Bidding War for a useless rock or what???

Hey Randy!

Thanks for the info!

If they're the double stones as you say then it sounds like then I got a reasonable deal for my $76.00, but a total bargain for the junk store Belgian coticule stone at $4.00! I guess that averages out to 2 "double" coticule stones for $40.00 ea...ok...I can live with that. now All I got to do is learn how to use them...

Also the older coticule stones are better? right?

I followed your advice and lapped my Norton Stones, first with the Notron "Flattening Stone", then with the 1000 Wet and Dry, then with each other....

Guess what the Norton 4K/8K WAS out of true!!! It had all kinds of high spots and low spots! It was brand new too!

So I guess I'll be getting ready to clean up the mess that I made with my two razors ealier this week......

BTW I lapped my two Belgian Coticule stones, first witht he Norton Flattening Stone, then the 1000 Wet & Dry, then finally with each other... came out Sweet!

All the best, and thanks for all the help and advice!

Here's the latest eBay bidding war for a "magic stone" that went for $112.50...

I guess 'cause it was a fairly rare "Thuringian straight razor hone NOS (New Old Stock)"... but still that's more than the "NEW" price!!!

Hey, I spent 76.00 for my Belgian coticule....ok it was worth it, BUT I I am mindfull that YESTERDAY, I bought EXACTLY the same Belgian coticule in a "junk store" for $4.00...

http://i2.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/95/a1/7068_1.JPG

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=170096591444

I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the box and the stone didn't originally come together. We don't know if the eBay seller bought it like that or put the box together with the stone. Fraud may or may not have been intended! There is so much weird stuff going on with stones these days on eBay and that's just ONE of the shenanigans I've seen in the past. The stone does indeed look like a natural belgian but the coticule surface looks kind of yucky.

That myth keeps getting perpetuated. It started with a posting from a guy in Europe who I tried to track down repeatedly and couldn't. I was trying to find out why he thought that was true. My degree in geology tells me that the stones mined 100 years ago were 20,000,100 years old while the stones mined today are only 20,000,000 years old. The same coticule veins are being followed into the blue stone quarry face today just as they were mined 100 years ago. I hear this kind of myth in other fields of endeavor as well such as steel for knives where people say "oh, the old steel is really the good steel for knife/sword making; today's steel is so-so" NONSENSE!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Howard

My degree in geology tells me that the stones mined 100 years ago were 20,000,100 years old while the stones mined today are only 20,000,000 years old.

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Why would they be 'older' just because they came out of the earth earlier?

Not being a geologist, my explanation has more to do with market forces. Once upon a time when the resources of this planet seemed infinite... coticule quarriers and their consumers could afford to be picky and chosey, and only quarry, mine, dress, and sell "First/Best Quality". Leaving behind the lesser grades of stone as tailings and waste...

As the rsources of Coticule became rarer and more finite and less and less abundant, market forces drove "Second Quality" into "First quality", as the stocks dried up even "Third Quality eventually became "First Quality"....

By now I would assume what used to be considered "tailings" and "waste " 100 years ago are now sold as "First Quality"...

I guess that somewhere in all of this is an object lesson for us about the rest of the resources of this planet that we are devouring...

We live on a tiny, fragile, finite little marble in space, and we should cherish, protect, and be more careful with the resources that we do have still remaining... before we lose it all...

I guess besides getting a close shave, I do like the idea of rescuing, renovating, recycling and giving these vintage and antique artifacts a second life...

TG