I'll tell you this much; they can be quite pretty! I have a few that I just stare at, they also hone two of my razors. The rest of the time I just look at them. Oh, I have used the coticule on one of my razors that continued to microchip as it was honed on synthetics, but now I have a Thuringian and Japanese stones that would probably work just as well. They do smell good as well, but I prefer the smell of my Japanese stones.