Thread: The......Belgian Brotherhood?

Originally Posted by Lesslemming

I can´t see a BBW there

Hard to see in the pics, I know. Look at Pic 1 or Pic 3. There are 3 layers that I see. The middle one is lighter (~bluish-gray) and has an irregular/wavy upper boundary with the coticle. The lower boundary has an abrupt/knife edge contact with the third/bottom, darker layer (the layer that I'm calling the schist, or slate, or whatever). Again, that's just my interpretation, but I see 3 layers.

That's not slate, its BBW. I can clearly see its garnets! It's a combo end of. Slate/Schist does not have garnets.

It's not always so easy to tell though. The other day one of my friends who knows nothing about razors saw one of my combos and could not believe it occurred naturally like that, especially when he saw my Naniwa combo. He just assumed it was the same kind of thing. Even when I pointed out more closely the irregularities in the split showing him it was natural he had a hard time accepting it.

That is interesting, Wineguyd, If you want to know for sure, contact me and I'll get a hold of the experts...

I'd like to join the Brotherhood. I've got a BBW/Coti combo and had it for about a year. It was an expensive little bugger, (about 3x5) but I love it and hope to keep it all my life.

The BBw was used as a backing years ago as it was not used for sharpening in the past.

Originally Posted by Woodash

Hard to see in the pics, I know. Look at Pic 1 or Pic 3. There are 3 layers that I see. The middle one is lighter (~bluish-gray) and has an irregular/wavy upper boundary with the coticle. The lower boundary has an abrupt/knife edge contact with the third/bottom, darker layer (the layer that I'm calling the schist, or slate, or whatever). Again, that's just my interpretation, but I see 3 layers.

You guys are going to drive me to drink(and I own a wine shop ;-)

I went and lapped the sides of the stone this morning to see the details and then took closeup shots with my iPhone, but as fate would have it, I was in the Apple store later having the phone serviced and forgot to sync the pics so they were wiped...I'll take more pics tomorrow and post them.

In the mean time I can tell you all that the stone is 100% a natural combo. The line that several members noted is actually a very faint coticule vein that bows and follows the contours of the Cot/BBW border. I looked at the stone with a strong magnifying glass and the BBW is homogeneous right to the border with the coticule. Again, wait for pics tomorrow, meanwhile, if you want to see where this type of natural combo comes from see below.


This is a picture of a coticule vein running through BBW.

You are able to see garnets? At what magnification, as they linger around 6-20µm.

There is a very easy to clarify if it´s a natural combo with bbw, or natural combo with schist (both exist).

Take a picture of heavy slurry. If it´s purple, it´s BBW. If it´s grey it´s schist.

BTW Schist can be used for sharpening, especially with slurry. But it is slow and only around 6k, at best.

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Take a picture of heavy slurry. If it´s purple, it´s BBW. If it´s grey it´s schist.
[/QUOTE]


When I lapped it this morning the BBW left totally purple slurry, both from the top and the sides with no hint of other coloration(besides the beige coticule slurry).

Then this is the darkest BBW I have ever seen! I once heard of grey BBW, though. Very nice indeed. You definetely have a naturally grown BBW Coti combo. Enjoy it

Alright skeptics, here are a few closeups of my stone after lapping the sides. My iPhone does not do macro shots so these are as close as I can get but I did examine the sides with a a magnifying glass and can say for certain that the stone is a natural combo. As mentioned before, the faint line is in fact a micro coticule vein that is not totally straight and bows with the the border of the BBW.