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.

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.

[QUOTE=

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.

Originally Posted by WineGuyD

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).

You're right, that concludes it.
Purple slurry => BBW
You weren't messing around with purple paint were you

count me in the brotherhood i have two natural combo coti the large one is 9 7/8 x 2 1/2 x 1 3/16 the second one is 6x2x3/4 and a slurry stone

My first coticule, a 15 x 3.2cm glued combo, came free (!) with a 10 EUR crap razor:



Following that I bought a La Petite Blanche 20x6cm natural combo:



Then came the visit to Ardennes Coticule where I bought a small 3 x 12.5cm Les Latneuses:






AND I also picked up a few pieces of raw rock, one of which I turned into the following:





The usable part is about 14cm x 3.5-4.5cm. Clearly visible are traces of manganese and what I think is chlorite.

I have a few others but the above are the ones I actually use ...