I don't know Glen but before they began using slate to reinforce the soft yellow coticule they did use the bbw. I've also seen photos of tables, fences and what have you made of blocks of the bbw. Not sure but I suspect it is harder. :thinking:
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I tried bbw to make a slurry on a coticule thinking I was breaking some sacred rule. But then I found this thread and at about the same time I felt that the edge I honed this way was pretty good.
Then just now I sat down for some relaxing honing. I put the small bbw stone to the coticule and started rubbing. After a few sets of circles I looked at my coticule and had a moment of dejavu. I had seen this somewhere before. Then it came to me. On the Dovo video where they show a razor being made, during the honing she is using a coticule with dirty, purple looking slurry. Must be a combination of bbw and coticule slurry.
I use a piece of PHIG to make slurry on my coticule. It works great!