Quote Originally Posted by Bart View Post
It's a natural Coticule. Sometimes the transition between the Blue and the Yellow is a hard edge, sometimes it's a slow transgression. You might want to think that's not good, but for finishing you could be very pleasantly surprised. Usually Coticules that have a greenish shade, are slow slurry-cutters. But they have a good reputation for finishing.
You should definitely test is. Try finishing with water only. If you want to test it for slurry-cutting, raise the slurry with a DMT, instead of a slurry stone. That way you're only testing the slurry of the hone, and not the slurry of your slurry stone.
Should you find it on the slow side, use a "fast" slurry stone, and test again. On slower Coticules, the slurry stone can really make a difference.

If I had to pick one on merely seeing it, I would prefer this one over one that has the color of your slurry stone.
By the way, how does it smell (when you raise a slurry on it)?

Hope this works out for you,
Bart.
Bart, your ability to mind read is phenomenal. I was going to remark about the very "earthy" smell of the coticule in a write-up I was going to do later after honing a few blades with it. I loooooove the smell of the coticule! You've hiked the Ardennes region... does the air smell like this??

And you have the color nailed. It seems quite green in color. I'm glad to hear it has a good reputation for finishing, since that's really what I want it for. I want to pit it against the finishing ability of the shapton 16k. Although I must say that I also do plan on using the coticule *after* the Shapton 16k and 30k to see if I can retain the sharpness of the shaptons, but "refine" the edge (more comfort) with the coticule. So many things to test... so little time.

Thanks for the help, gents, I knew you guys would have this figured out for me in no time.