Welsh Thuri Vs Coti Vs Arki

[paco664]

I saw your purchase and still feel bit nervous because of the negative comments about the seller

i have bought from him twice... my only complaint is he is a tad slow to get stuff in the mail...

that being said i will buy from him again and i wouldn't hesitate to suggest anyone else buy from him....

*(squinting eyes and crossing fingers this don't explode in my face..)

[jeness]

The bad rep I think comes from those people like me, who got defective stones. The stone I purchased from him had toxic lines all over the place, which scratched everything, and chipped the edge. It was only 50$, but it was 50$ wasted fully, beecause it wasn't suitable to hone anything. No returns, no money back for me, so I woudn't buy anything from him again stone wise. The stone was obviously defective, so that it wasn't an accident from him, he just sold crap and he didn't really care it isn't good for anything.

[Gamma]

It is important to tell him what you need, espeicially when its for a razor.
His main business is with woodworkers.
In that world, toxic threads are just part of the landscape, they cut the threads out with an awl or nail, problem solved.

So what I think is that if someone throws 50 bucks at an undefined stone without communicating their needs before bidding, they can get a stone with issues that preclude it from being used for razors. Of course - sometimes you can luck out too.

Every single time I've emaied him before I went to make a purchase I've discussed what I needed with him and I've recieved what I paid for.
His advice and direction has been excellent each time - but sometimes he's difficult to understand.

[jeness]

I told him everything, and he said it is a hard stone, and will be perfect for my needs. He didn't mention anything else, the lines, or the need for craping them out, so I don't think I did something wrong. I told him what I need, he said this one will be okay, and he sent me a stone that wasn't suitable for the task. This was a long time ago, maybe this has changed over the few years I haven't bought stones from him.

[SliceOfLife]

I bought one of his listed stones and one of his random stones.

Listed stone was exactly as described and was a great razor finisher. Shape was annoying and I didn't need two or else I'd still have it.

The random was about 5-8k JIS range max. Made a good prefinisher, could shave off it if you really wanted to. It was ridiculously fast. Another stone I almost wish I kept. Could go from beveling stone (DMT) to finisher (Thuringian) on it with slurry almost as fast as a coticule can Dilucoting. Though it took a bit more time on the finisher. It wasn't really what I paid for but looking back it was a good stone and an absolute steal. That said, I'm positive I got lucky. He's selling these stones these days for $20 (They were somewhere between 40 and 60 back then), and his shippings got to be at least $10. So it's basically what you pay for two beers. I'd be a fool if I felt it was anything but a gamble. I'd be a lot more hesitant at the prices they used to go for, but I think it's $23 or $24 now, so it really is like buying a pricy lottery ticket. Maybe you get a $20 stone. Maybe you get a $100 stone. Maybe you just get a stone.


I don't have anything bad to say about the stones he lists individually though. Looking at what he's listing on eBay they are all 5+/max/max/max... so that's a bit suspicious (they weren't back when I got mine), but it's possible that those are the ones that sell on eBay so they are the only ones he bothers listing and the rest are on his site (I'm too lazy to check).


If nothing else, trying to read his auctions can be a bit amusing. The auto-translator he gets his English listings out of is pretty entertaining.