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

Yep, there's a lot of brotherhoods going on out there I've noticed (Boker Brotherhood, Horse Butt Brotherhood, etc). Why not a Belgian Brotherhood?

About three months ago, I bought an 8"x3" yellow coticule from Howard. It was not until a few weeks back after buying an 8"x3" Belgian Blue from him that I realized on my first purchase he had slipped me an 8"x3" natural combo rather than a yellow! I emailed him offering to return it for the slate backed yellow and he said.....enjoy!

It has been mentioned that there is a difference in coticule quality, grade, etc as could be expected from a natural stone. I thought posting some pics, mainly of the noticeable difference in the blue side of my natural yellow/blue combo and the new all blue belgian I have. Pretty cool is you ask me. And remember, only guys like us and maybe rockhounds would find this anything other than boring beyond belief!

Yellow side of my Combo

Yellow side. Smooooth as glass!

Yellow at 10x. For the uninitiated, the dark flecks are some of the garnets. Ok, Ok, enough of the yellow. On to the blues!.............

The blue side of my natural combo in need of a lapping! Shame on me for getting the smallest bit of honing oil on it. Thankfully water doesn't even bead on those small spots so they have no ill effect. Keep all oil away from the waterstones!

Although subtle, you can see the graduation between the top yellow and the bottom blue on this combo.

Close up of the "old blue" as I call it. This is the blue side of the natural combo. The whole reason I created this post, is to show the variation in belgians. Notice on this blue, more garnet than the yellow, but still not nearly what you'll see next............

There's the new all blue 8"x3"x1" on the right compared to the blue side of the natural on the left. Look at the higher garnet concentration.

Garnet explosion! This all blue's surface looks like a leather's grain even when dry. Nice!

New all blue magnified even closer at 10x. Nice cutters!

Parting shot: yellow side of natural combo next to my new all blue.

Ok, Ok, bottom line.....how to they work? Well the yellow is as expected, just like butta.
With the more sparse garnet saturation on the blue side of the yellow/blue combo, my guess is that it will act as a grit size BETWEEN my yellow and my all blue. I have tried this blue combo side and with a slurry, it makes such a nice scratch pattern. I have not yet tried the all blue but I will very soon. I can report back here when done. I thought about parting with my all blue but it didn't take long to decide against it since this new blue I believe is going to be a nice workhorse leaving the combo blue side for touchups that need a bit more than the yellow, but not quite as much attention as my new all blue will surely give. I think it's time for me to re-lap my Norton 4000/8000 and sell 'er off.

I'd love to see some pics of some other coticules. Randydance has some vintage coticules I'd love to see. Anyone else?

horse butt brotherhood? Oh My!

lol....I haven't actually seen that one yet Doc....

Horse butt brotherhood ... People who deliberately buy crap products with the sole intention of complainign about them?

Originally Posted by Eastree

Horse butt brotherhood ... People who deliberately buy crap products with the sole intention of complainign about them?

Funny, I was thinking horse hide strops, but your idea will work!

Originally Posted by JMS

Funny, I was thinking horse hide strops, but your idea will work!

Woah! My mind went off in a completely different direction Thanks for clearing that one up!

James.

Two coticules, one belgian blue (on the other side of the coticule on the right). Not at the same zoom level.

Originally Posted by Chrisl

Yep, there's a lot of brotherhoods going on out there I've noticed (Boker Brotherhood, Horse Butt Brotherhood, etc). Why not a Belgian Brotherhood?

Alright, alright, I was kidding about the Horse Butt Brotherhood. But in the leather world, Horse Butt (shell) was a term that was actually used and even stamped on some strops. So when I say Horse Butt, I'm referring to mighty fine strops. In that respect, I'd belong to a Horse Butt brotherhood anytime!

Thanks for those photos!
I have a nice natural combo stone too (photo). It's cool that there's variation between the natural stones, kinda like variation in wines or whiskys. mmm

Very nice looking natural combo!