vintage or LA Grise

Hunkered down in this blizzard, wife and daughter are watching Frozen (again) so I'm breaking out the coti for some playtime. I have a vintage Coti 4x2 (are the veins not known on these??) And a LA Grise 5x1.5. Which should I focus on?

Some may say YMMV but I don't have enough mileage to know how I vary.

Slurry one with the other. Win-Win.
Hard to name that vein on vintages...attempts to do so might get you the evil eye

For what it's worth, the only coti I didn't like was a la grise, but I know lots of people that have loved them. Mine was just too darn slow and did not give me great feedback at all. The finish was decent on soapy water but I could get a much better edge from my other cotis.
I love vintage coticules myself. I would consider a newly mined coticule if it were a natural combo, but I hate the idea of a slate backed stone when BBW is so fun to use and, to me, part of the allure. For me, at least, the price of a new coticule isn't justified when you're getting half of what you used to get, and I don't like how BBW backing is now a "premium" addition. It's nothing against the great folks at Ardennes as I know this was a decision they had to make in order to stay solvent, just my own personal preference and why I gravitate towards vintage stones.

Gumbo have you used the BBW on glued vintages with success?

imatabor said:

Hunkered down in this blizzard, wife and daughter are watching Frozen (again) so I'm breaking out the coti for some playtime. I have a vintage Coti 4x2 (are the veins not known on these??) And a LA Grise 5x1.5. Which should I focus on?

Some may say YMMV but I don't have enough mileage to know how I vary.

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I'd try the LaGrise first, and do a unicot. They are supposed to be able to take a little more pressure. As David said slurry one with the other.

I've been playing with my new 4x2 coti this afternoon:

Have fun!

Hey John how are you making out on the coast? We got about a foot of the white but the wind is wicked!

You guys got slammed. How bout sending 4-6 inches down to Tennessee?

I cleared out once with the snow blower this afternoon I thought we had about 18" then. Will do it again after supper. Looks like more snow further south then we got here.

Dcaddo111 said:

Gumbo have you used the BBW on glued vintages with success?

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The reason I ask is, it is my understanding that the BBW used on glued vintages was not intended to be used as a hone, but maybe I'm wrong. The two that I have here seem to have no abrasive properties whatsoever.
That being said, I enjoy using the BBW on my natural combos.

That being said, I enjoy using the BBW on my natural combos

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I was reading that due to the abrasive characteristics of BBW that one should forget it and just use the Coti. My vintage is a natural combo so how/where/when would the BBW be used?

Dcaddo111 said:

Gumbo have you used the BBW on glued vintages with success?

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There is a lot on BBW as a hone and I tend to fall in the "they are great" camp. They may have more of a quality variance than yellow coticules but most of the ones I've used, backing or natural, work fine. The idea that they are "4-6k" quality is in my experience not true at all. The closest thing to a scientific study that's been done on the honing characteristics seems to suggest that as well, and perhaps that they are equally as useful if not a bit slower than the yellow side. I suggest you read that paper originally published on coticule.be. I've posted this before but here goes http://www.coticule.be/heritage.html?file=tl_files/PDF articles/BBW-study.pdf

Cool. Thanks for the link.

Yeah I would guess it's heavily dependent on the BBW specimen. I've seen that paper before and it's pretty clear that most if not all participants couldn't tell much if any difference in a blind test between edges honed on BBW and coticule.

I spent the afternoon with the vintage. I started with an old razor that was given to me. It has a lot of hone, the pervious bevel is very wide. I worked up a thick slurry and went to town. Never got to the point of cutting hair. I did go through diluting all the way to water. I knew it wouldn't work but I had to go through the progression anyway.

I figured the bevel wasn't set so I went to the 1k king. I thought I had the bevel set and went back to the coti. After a few hours Im still barely cutting hair. It's late so I hit the strop and shaved. Well tried to shave. It tugged and pulled so bad I started to confess to crimes that happened before I was born!!! I grabbed a custom Seraphim razor and enjoyed a real edge.

I really don't want to get hooked on using tape but I may pull it out. Could it be that the hone wear is so bad that I need tape? I have had success with film and once with the synthetic stones. Is this a case of just figuring a new type of stone?

Do you use a linen strop after sharpening? I think this is essential for coticule edges.

Btw. it is always funny to read how you american guys gettin upset because of that little bit of snow falling down. We got about 22 inches last night, and still there is no problem, maybe we are more used to it in bavaria.

Greets Sebastian.

I used a felt strop.


BTW, yes we americans have become very wimpy in these things. Even in my lifetime things have changed. Now a blizzard is considered when more than 4 flakes fall.

imatabor said:

I used a felt strop.


BTW, yes we americans have become very wimpy in these things. Even in my lifetime things have changed. Now a blizzard is considered when more than 4 flakes fall.

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I don`t have any experience with felt strops, but i would recommend you to use a jeans or someting, that is one really worthy use for them (i mean the linen strop or jeans, just your trouser.....) after a coti finish. Most times it can do magic things to the edge, don`t know why btw.

Greets Sebastian.

Dcaddo111 said:

You guys got slammed. How bout sending 4-6 inches down to Tennessee?

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Noooooo! That is way to close to Florida for my comfort! The only snow I want to see is on a postcard!

brianskeet said:

noooooo! That is way to close to florida for my comfort! The only snow i want to see is on a postcard!

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amen, brutha!!!!

Careful what you wish for I was in Millington, TN with the Navy in the mid 70's. We got about 3 inches of snow and it shut the place down for a week!