Thread: Yellow Coticule vs Chinese 12k. Who has both?

and yes, Howard at www.theperfectedge.com has most everything, at really good prices.

woodcraft has the chinese stones, amongst others.
http://www.woodcraft.com/depts.aspx?DeptID=4026

Yes Howard at theperfectedge.com should have what you need. There are different types of stones. Most yellow coticules have a blue slate backing to support the soft yellow stone; it is not used for honing. Sometimes Howard has very rare belgian natural stones which have BOTH the yellow and the blue stone which were formed together. Another option that would probably be a little cheaper and probably a little better because you would probably get a little more stone would be to buy a blue stone and a yellow stone seperately; Howard has cheaper prices than the site than you listed. The yellow will be the more expensive stone, belgian blues are fairly cheap. As a side note, I have found that the belgian blue stone works better than any other stone that I have tried for putting a final polish on my knives, so I will probably be ordering another just for this purpose.

thanks guys, i'll think about which Belgian stone to get once i get lynns dvd i think, is the 4x2 inch good enough for a belgian stones? i think i'd stick with those an not bother going any bigger due to price. Although, do you guys use these for your knives as well? i use global 20cm chefs knife and i want to get a kasumi or hattori chefs knife one day.At the moment i just use the norton 1/4k stone which i find sufficient. But i guess i could maybe get a 8x3 blue for the knifes and a 4x2 yellow for the finish on the straight razor.


orfeo

Originally Posted by orfeo

thanks guys, i'll think about which Belgian stone to get once i get lynns dvd i think, is the 4x2 inch good enough for a belgian stones? i think i'd stick with those an not bother going any bigger due to price. Although, do you guys use these for your knives as well? i use global 20cm chefs knife and i want to get a kasumi or hattori chefs knife one day.At the moment i just use the norton 1/4k stone which i find sufficient. But i guess i could maybe get a 8x3 blue for the knifes and a 4x2 yellow for the finish on the straight razor.


orfeo

No, 4X2 is too short and square IMO. You need a little more length, but you don't need as much width. The smallest that I would recommend would be a 1X5. If you are trying to stay as small as possible I would recommend a 1-1.5 inch wide stone by a 5-6 inch long stone. You don't need a 3 inch wide stone for knives so you could cut some cost there by going 8X2. You will have to take my word for the size on the yellow at this point but you will definately thank me later if you spend a little more to get a slightly longer stone and decide to stick with it.

I just looked at Howard's page. FWIW he probably has a few more sizes not listed but this is what I would do for your budget with what he has listed. Get the 6X1.4 yellow by taking the cost away from the 3X8 blue. If you are just doing razors then the 6X2 blue will be plenty. This size would also work OK for knives but the extra length is really nice to have if you have a big knife, so I would go for the 8X2. It also would be really nice to get a cotigura stone so that you can raise a slurry on your blue and yellow to increase the cutting speed, but it is not necessary; you can also raise a slurry with another knife or razor.

no insult intended, but you keep mentioning that you are on a budget, and given the feedback for the chinese 12k, I don't see why you are limiting yourself to the belgians. You would get more stone, that will do a "comparable" job (as per other users descriptions), at 1/3 the price of the yellow stone.

I just always tend to go the cheapest effective route for any new endeavor just in case it's not as interesting once I get down to the nitty gritty. That way, if honing just isn't your thing, your not out as much money.

another 2c.

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

no insult intended, but you keep mentioning that you are on a budget, and given the feedback for the chinese 12k, I don't see why you are limiting yourself to the belgians. You would get more stone, that will do a "comparable" job (as per other users descriptions), at 1/3 the price of the yellow stone.

I just always tend to go the cheapest effective route for any new endeavor just in case it's not as interesting once I get down to the nitty gritty. That way, if honing just isn't your thing, your not out as much money.

another 2c.

Except if you get a Belgian hone and decide you don't like honing you can generally resell the hone for as much if not more than you paid for it! I don't think the same can be said for the Chinese hone. I suppose I could be wrong though.

I own one of Howards blue/yellow 6x2 coticule and I have not been disapointed at all. The only other stone I am adding is a DMT 1200 to set bevels or fix chips in old razors that I am restoring. You could use the blue to set the bevel, but its going to take a while and I just dont have time. The blue/yellow is just too handy.

Originally Posted by JMS

Except if you get a Belgian hone and decide you don't like honing you can generally resell the hone for as much if not more than you paid for it! I don't think the same can be said for the Chinese hone. I suppose I could be wrong though.

In my opinion, you are wrong. I spent many hours lapping my 12K to flatness, on both the wide and narrow side, with a DMT 320 diamond hone and would feel no guilt at all charging more for it than I paid for it. However, I have no plans of doing so.

Originally Posted by Utopian

In my opinion, you are wrong. I spent many hours lapping my 12K to flatness, on both the wide and narrow side, with a DMT 320 diamond hone and would feel no guilt at all charging more for it than I paid for it. However, I have no plans of doing so.

You could definitely offer it for more, And I am certain you put in the work to ask for more! The question is, would someone actually pay more? I know for certain they would with a coticule, but I only have my guesses about the Chinese hone!