Where to buy a coti?

Hi all, I'm looking to pick up a coticle for routine maintenance/touch-ups, and was just wondering where to pick one up from? As a student I'm a little tight on the budget if that makes a difference. I live in Canada, but have a readily available American address that I can have items shipped to. Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

>Nathan

I'm pretty sure you can buy directly from Ardennes. They have them at Fendrihan, which is in Canada. Theperfectedge.com has them. Vintage Blades has them. SRD carries them.

That's just a short list from checking various vendors.

There's also an ~8x2" in ~mint with a slurry in BST right now for $175.

You mean the one that says "Made from two prime stones that were hand selected and adhered together" in the body?

Haha, Now I feel like a fool. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Corrected post. Good, I don't feel the need to buy it with money I don't have anymore.

IMO, a glued combo is better than natural anyway. With a glued, there is no risk of cross contamination of blue into yellow through the vein line. Also, natural combos are selected for the yellow side, not the blue, so if you use the blue side, you'll likely get a better blue with a glued combo. I also think naturals are hyped and overpriced just because they are "rare" and natural.

Just my two cents. I'm stating my opinions, not facts.

http://www.coticule.be/Rec_web.html

Hope that helps.

I agree that functionally I'd rather have a glued. But there's a certain novelty value and a massive boost in resale value on the Natural combos if you ever decide to get rid of it .

I would give Howard a call at theperfectedge. I will pick you out a good one to use if you tell him your budget.

Man, I would have loved to have gotten that vintage combo coti/bbw. I've got a 6x2, and just wish it were a wee bit longer.

holli4pirating said:

IMO, a glued combo is better than natural anyway. With a glued, there is no risk of cross contamination of blue into yellow through the vein line. Also, natural combos are selected for the yellow side, not the blue, so if you use the blue side, you'll likely get a better blue with a glued combo. I also think naturals are hyped and overpriced just because they are "rare" and natural.

Just my two cents. I'm stating my opinions, not facts.

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To your point, Ardennes doesn't charge more for natural combos than for standard cotis

I have so many stones, I really shouldn't be reading this thread. Great info, though.

No one has enough stone until they have a Coti.

SliceOfLife said:

No one has enough stone until they have a Coti.

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...or several.

richmondesi said:

To your point, Ardennes doesn't charge more for natural combos than for standard cotis

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My mistake; I've only ever seen prices on ebay and BST's.

holli4pirating said:

My mistake; I've only ever seen prices on ebay and BST's.

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No, I was supporting your point by saying that the mine doesn't charge a premium for them even though resellers often do.

Where does ardenne's list their natural combos? I only remember seeing BBW, Coti on slate, and formstones on their site. Do they send them all to Bart?

Buy one anywhere but bestsharpeningstones.com. I got a coti from there with some large inclusions. When I called and spoke to the owner, he promised to swap it out as soon as he got some new stones in stock. They came back in stock and 5 phone messages, 5 emails and 2 months later I have no responses.

SliceOfLife said:

Where does ardenne's list their natural combos? I only remember seeing BBW, Coti on slate, and formstones on their site. Do they send them all to Bart?

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No they don't. They just don't list them separately. Combo's aren't rare. Coticules are found in thin layers, almost always bond to Blue rock. It the layer is thick enough, they can cut several slices. Those slices need to be glued. For that, they currently use Portuguese slate. But there's nearly always a slice still bonded to Blue stone at one or both sides of the layer. Some layers are so thin that you'll nearly always see them bonded to their natural counterpart. So combination Coticules/BBW are not as rare as some E-bay seller might claim it is.

Ardennes doesn't bother with listing them apart. I don't know the official explanation, but I don't think they make any claims about the blue side of a combo being completely fit for honing. Mostly it is, but not all these BBW are of the good fast variety they sell as dedicated BBW. And they may not always be free of hard inclusions either.
I a manner of speaking, with a natural combination Coticule, you'll receive a free mystery hone at the back of the actual Coticule you paid for. I think that's why they don't charge extra.

Bart.