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What's the differnce between honing slate and back of the coti slate?

It may lack the consistency necessary or have some other lackluster property that makes it not so hot. Slate in general not thuringian often disappoints. Even vermont slate which I am a huge fan of has not much middle ground. The stuff ardennes glues cotis to seems to be the sort of slate that smears in random spots.The particle size may be all over the place too but idk.
 
I've lapped and used the Slate backer, but was unimpressed. It will do for medium work in a pinch and will work up a slurry, but it's not one I use. I've been eyeing a piece of Welsh slate to try though
 
Ardennes calls it "unusable schist" which is probably so no one ever complains about not getting good results off it.

Slate is apparently almost always fairly consistent particle size because of it's nature. But maybe "fairly consistent" isn't "razor finishing" consistent. Generally... if you have a piece... you have a coticule too... so why waste your time trying to prove the schist doesn't totally suck when you could just use the coti?
 
Well there are a lot of parameters which stand for a usable slate, this is based on the composition of the abrasives, their size, their form and other facts in connection to the steel...so not every slate can be used for honing.

Also a good amount of Quartz particles might turn out to bring in better honing properties.

A lot of roofing slates might be in the condition to be well usable for honing. Iam actually still trying to find out whats the ideal composition for a honing slate. The best way to get details together here are thin cuts and composition records of roofing slates and slates for tiles.
 
At its most basic the difference between honing slate and Paving slate or other slates is that honing slate is supposed to have been tested to confirm uniformity and abrasive quality and usefulness as a hone. Unfortunately the ability to expect this from stone being sold as hones is gone these days. EBay has become a fly-by-night operation for guys buying Paving Stone and cutting it and selling it as hones. And since the large majority of the market of people for hones these days are amateurs looking for cheaper alternatives to established or quality stones or synthetics, they are rarely called out on it, and often times create a very profitable business driven by inexperienced users, and perhaps the occasional success story wherein a stone by sheer fluke happens to be a good hone. This same sheer fluke may mean that an example of the unusable schist Ardennes backs its Coticule with could prove to be a capable or even quality hone... but just as with other examples of untested Stone being sold as a hone, the likelihood of it being an excellent hone is very low, and as such testing examples of Ardennes backing schist is likely a waste of your time.
 
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"driven by inexperienced users" is, I greatly suspect, the largest of all markets in this subcategory of greater Earth.

Plenty of oil to tap there.

I've never understood the fascination with 'natural combination stone' coticules because there's literally nothing, at least in the str8rzr world, that I can do *better* with the blue (or slate) than I can do with the yellow, which is obviously right there.

I guess people just want to brag that what they have below their fingers was ordained strictly by Earth, whether they know that to be the motivation or not.
 
Historically, coti nearer the blue was thought to be better than the further cuts... Probably due to favorite veins (veinette) being too thin to get multiple cuts from. But really it's probably mostly a status thing. Glued stones often had thinner coti layers and had a cheaper more generic look and feel.


I will say that vintage combos ( both glued and natural) often show wear on the blue side, seemingly because they were used to hone things that would drastically damage or wear the yellow side... so while the other side was indisputably Superior as a hone, Being more disposable gave the blue a function.
 
I've lapped and used the Slate backer, but was unimpressed. It will do for medium work in a pinch and will work up a slurry, but it's not one I use. I've been eyeing a piece of Welsh slate to try though
I did this as well. Lapped the back side of my coti very smooth(cannot remember how far I took it, but at least 1k wet/dry.
It did nothing for the edge that was good, IMO. The coti side, on the other hand, delivers a lovely edge.
I have another piece of slate here. I believe it is an old self mined rock that an elderly friend of mine gave me a while back. It puts a nice, shiny bevel on a razor off of an 8k Norton, and the shave isn't too bad; but I would not compsare it to any of the actual finishers that I have, which pretty much leave it in the dust.
I think it will work well to put a nice finish on my knives, though, but I will still play a bit with it on razors from time to time, just because I can. :em2300:
 
There was an Ardennes schist backed coticule listed on eBay a few years ago with a "Escher" backing. I messaged the seller about it (this was long before one of our members actually made a thuricule) and he swore up and down that he knew Eschers and Ardennes must have accidentally backed this Coti he bought from them with Escher.
 
There was an Ardennes schist backed coticule listed on eBay a few years ago with a "Escher" backing. I messaged the seller about it (this was long before one of our members actually made a thuricule) and he swore up and down that he knew Eschers and Ardennes must have accidentally backed this Coti he bought from them with Escher.

Haha how should they ? Escher or the follow ups closed long before ardennes took over business from Burton.....funny thing...
 
There was an Ardennes schist backed coticule listed on eBay a few years ago with a "Escher" backing. I messaged the seller about it (this was long before one of our members actually made a thuricule) and he swore up and down that he knew Eschers and Ardennes must have accidentally backed this Coti he bought from them with Escher.

Quite the accident, there.
 

David

B&B’s Champion Corn Shucker
There was an Ardennes schist backed coticule listed on eBay a few years ago with a "Escher" backing. I messaged the seller about it (this was long before one of our members actually made a thuricule) and he swore up and down that he knew Eschers and Ardennes must have accidentally backed this Coti he bought from them with Escher.
That's funny. I bet the coti side had a 75 percent garnet content.
 
There was an Ardennes schist backed coticule listed on eBay a few years ago with a "Escher" backing. I messaged the seller about it (this was long before one of our members actually made a thuricule) and he swore up and down that he knew Eschers and Ardennes must have accidentally backed this Coti he bought from them with Escher.
I saw that too, it was a seller from Greece I think.. It was an interesting combination..
 
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