Thread: Natural Belgian Ebay Find?

Tony, I have a similar stone in 3x8, and I love it. Got it from Howard, as a matter of fact. Take a look at his site, some good info on the stones there. http://www.theperfectedge.com Randy is right the blue side is a bit slower (and smoother feeling) than the Norton 4k. The way I use it is after the Norton 4k, I then go to the Belgian blue side, yellow coticule side, then to my Shapton 15k.

Larry, on my 15k I keep it VERY wet at all times while honing. I mean I keep pushing water back and forth on it. I lie it on a wet washrag to catch all of the water that runs off. This seems to prevent it's loading and makes for easy rinsing afterwards. If I let it start to dry then the particles try to soak in. Maybe that will help you. After use I just rub it with my thumbs under cold running water, then lean it against the mirror to dry along with my other stones. .................Jeff

How can you tell when it's a two sided stone or one with backing. I have one with a yellow and blue side with the wavy interface, instead of a straight line. Does that make it two sided? It's just that the blue side doesn't seem very abrasive.

Joe,
The wavy, uneven interface is the clue. One stone almost melds into the other without a sharp deliniation. actually in some spots it may be a fairly distinct line but in others if just fades into the other stone. take a look at the seam with your RS scope. A newer Coticyule will be bonded to a slate backing and should show a definite line between the two.
The blue is around 4000 grit, the yellow around 8000. The actualt grit is from 5 to 20 microns in size but the odd shape prevents them from penetrating more than 2 or 3 microns into the steel makeing them so fine. The yellow has a higher percentage of garnets too.

Is this the one you got off ebay a few weeks ago? I was atching it but the photos were not that great and it looked as if the surface was deeply scratched. They can be flattened on a DMT diamond hone.

Tony

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Is this the one you got off ebay a few weeks ago? I was atching it but the photos were not that great and it looked as if the surface was deeply scratched. They can be flattened on a DMT diamond hone.

It's not, but that one also has the uneven interface. I went for it because when I blew up the photos I could see that the marks were not really scratches at all. They came out quite easily with just a pumice stone.

The stone I was referring to I got a while ago. What I like about it is that it's about 5-6 inches long and about 2 inches wide, a very convenient size to hold.