PalmRoyale
Senior Member
Edit: If you're going to contact me about a stone, please do so only if you're serious. I'm not in the mood for people who tell me they want a stone only to go dark afterwards. Please don't do it.
First up is this green stone. To be honest I don't have a clue what mine or stratum this stone is from but it looks a lot like the No. 15 from Shinichi's site. It has the same brownish and black spots and it's the same colour green. The brownish and black spots aren't a problem, I've never felt them. I can tell you it's a fairly hard stone, I'd guess at least HS50, and it feels very smooth and kind of soft. It will remove metal on it's own but it's slow so I've always used it with a slurry to get things going. Lately I've used it with a koma nagura and the result is very good. On water only the scratch pattern looks to be about 6000-7000 grit but with a koma nagura, or any kind of slurry, you will get a beautiful, hazy polish that brings out the contrast between the hard core and soft cladding quite nicely. The edge is refined with some bite. It's not the longest stone but it's wide and this gives you a lot of surface area to work on. The bottom and sides have been sealed with clear automotive lacquer.
Price: $150, buyer pays paypal fees and shipping.
This is after 2-3 minutes of sharpening with a koma nagura slurry. There's also a good amount of stone mud in there.
I don't have any clad knives so I took my Tasai chisel to show you the kind of finish you can expect. There are some small scratches but for the most part it's a uniform, hazy finish. Not bad if I say so myself. The soft steel backing of the Tasai definitely helps to release mud from the stone itself so this will be a good stone for wide, clad bevel.
Next up is a Coticule La Nouvelle Vein. This a natural combination stone with a very useable Belgian Blue side on the bottom. It's a very clean stone with some faint red in it. It's on the softer side and will develop a good amount of slurry with moderately hard steel. With soft steel, like the backing of my Tasai chisel, it's a different story and it turns into a mud bath and it almost acts like a very fine metal file. When you only sharpen hard steel however (like Tasai special blue steel @ 63HRC) there's little to no slurry but it still removes metal at a good rate. The trick with this stone and laminated blades is where you put pressure on the blade to control slurry formation.
Price: $100, buyer pays paypal fees and shipping.
Lots and lots of thick, creamy slurry!
This is literally after 3 single forward strokes. It immediately bites into the soft backing of my Tasai chisel.
Don't expect a highly polished finish. This is like a 3000 grit finish.
The third stone is another Coticule. This one is also very clean, soft, a beautiful pale yellow, almost square and glued to black slate. It feels smoother to the touch than the La Nouvelle Vein and behaves basically the same but it's a tad bit faster. The edge from this coti is also a bit more aggressive and the slurry is a bit darker. It's unknown to me and Maurice Celis (the owner of Ardennes Coticule) what layer this stone is from but don't let that stop you, it's a sweet, sweet stone and probably one of the fastest cotis you will ever use. It puts most synthetics to shame.
Price: $110, buyer pays paypal fees and shipping.
One thing I forgot to mention is that Coticules don't absorb water, not a drop. And they don't load up. Rinse them under a running tap and watch the slurry run off.
Edit: made a mistake. The price for the second coti is $110.
First up is this green stone. To be honest I don't have a clue what mine or stratum this stone is from but it looks a lot like the No. 15 from Shinichi's site. It has the same brownish and black spots and it's the same colour green. The brownish and black spots aren't a problem, I've never felt them. I can tell you it's a fairly hard stone, I'd guess at least HS50, and it feels very smooth and kind of soft. It will remove metal on it's own but it's slow so I've always used it with a slurry to get things going. Lately I've used it with a koma nagura and the result is very good. On water only the scratch pattern looks to be about 6000-7000 grit but with a koma nagura, or any kind of slurry, you will get a beautiful, hazy polish that brings out the contrast between the hard core and soft cladding quite nicely. The edge is refined with some bite. It's not the longest stone but it's wide and this gives you a lot of surface area to work on. The bottom and sides have been sealed with clear automotive lacquer.
Price: $150, buyer pays paypal fees and shipping.
This is after 2-3 minutes of sharpening with a koma nagura slurry. There's also a good amount of stone mud in there.
I don't have any clad knives so I took my Tasai chisel to show you the kind of finish you can expect. There are some small scratches but for the most part it's a uniform, hazy finish. Not bad if I say so myself. The soft steel backing of the Tasai definitely helps to release mud from the stone itself so this will be a good stone for wide, clad bevel.
Next up is a Coticule La Nouvelle Vein. This a natural combination stone with a very useable Belgian Blue side on the bottom. It's a very clean stone with some faint red in it. It's on the softer side and will develop a good amount of slurry with moderately hard steel. With soft steel, like the backing of my Tasai chisel, it's a different story and it turns into a mud bath and it almost acts like a very fine metal file. When you only sharpen hard steel however (like Tasai special blue steel @ 63HRC) there's little to no slurry but it still removes metal at a good rate. The trick with this stone and laminated blades is where you put pressure on the blade to control slurry formation.
Price: $100, buyer pays paypal fees and shipping.
Lots and lots of thick, creamy slurry!
This is literally after 3 single forward strokes. It immediately bites into the soft backing of my Tasai chisel.
Don't expect a highly polished finish. This is like a 3000 grit finish.
The third stone is another Coticule. This one is also very clean, soft, a beautiful pale yellow, almost square and glued to black slate. It feels smoother to the touch than the La Nouvelle Vein and behaves basically the same but it's a tad bit faster. The edge from this coti is also a bit more aggressive and the slurry is a bit darker. It's unknown to me and Maurice Celis (the owner of Ardennes Coticule) what layer this stone is from but don't let that stop you, it's a sweet, sweet stone and probably one of the fastest cotis you will ever use. It puts most synthetics to shame.
Price: $110, buyer pays paypal fees and shipping.
One thing I forgot to mention is that Coticules don't absorb water, not a drop. And they don't load up. Rinse them under a running tap and watch the slurry run off.
Edit: made a mistake. The price for the second coti is $110.
Sold.
