The list identifying the stones is just my best wild-*** guess. I would certainly accept any input offered. That said, a few of the stones have gone back into the Simple Green, so identifying them may become easier a month from now. The fourth one on the left appears to have been used only with water and is a complete mystery to me.
Looks like it could be some sort of Jnat to me.
Cool! #3, #4 and #5 (the crazy hard stone) all have a small amount of transparency. I also have another Washita which is similar to #3 & #4.
No, I’m not calling it a coticule. I am saying it is a BBW. Google around Belgian blue whetstone or go to the Ardennes website and check them out. They are often the backing used on older coticules, but they are a whetstone from the same mines.
Sorry. Didn't mean to mix up the Coticules and BBWs. I always think of them as the Blonde and the Blue Belgian Whetstones, never thought that "Coticule" only applied to the Blonde side.
That looks like a BBW to me.
No worries and no apologies needed
I was just being clear in what I meant. Yes, they are from the same locations/mines, but they are not only different seams but also almost always perform quite differently than the coticule (yellow). It is not just a purple variant, but most of the time they are slower, have large garnets, and tend to be a little more coarse. Good stones but still different than the standard coticule. Good finds either way!The slurries on three BBWs and #1 all seem similar. I honed a german knife on them to get a sense of feel and both the hardness and honing are similar as well. Here's a pic with #1 at the top.
