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BBW as a one-hone?

I agree some visual characteristics are clues you have something special. There is a lot of beauty In Belgian Blues that often go unnoticed. I’m glad to see they are starting to get some recognition. Here is one I have had good results with.

I also have some more modern Ardennes ones that I’ve had good results with. I’ll try & take some pics later & post.
Those look really nice!
 
I agree some visual characteristics are clues you have something special. There is a lot of beauty In Belgian Blues that often go unnoticed. I’m glad to see they are starting to get some recognition. Here is one I have had good results with.

I also have some more modern Ardennes ones that I’ve had good results with. I’ll try & take some pics later & post.
The indicators of a great bbw is the only thing I look for when buying coticules. Every good bbw I've had was attached to an amazing coticule, without fail. Every great coticule I have isn't attached to a great bbw. The bbw and manganese lines on the yellow side are all I look at these days and it's served me well. They are probably one of the most underrated stones out there because so much of the new material being quarried(and sold) is garbage. Much of the newer stuff is barely more useful than Portuguese slate being attached for backing. The old ones that have patterning almost like the inside of an abalone shell and the big manganese blotches are really hard to beat as finishing stones. Some of them will put an edge down much keener than a thuringian.
 
@ROE I have a small coticule that has that "running water" look under the surface of it like yours(almost like a really faint hybrid side of a les lat), and it's the finest yellow coticule I own. It leaves an edge aggressive enough that I use it on my edc work knife regularly. It's pretty fast too. The bbw side is even finer. One thing I noticed is the grain goes lengthwise. Instead of diagonal or horizontal. The ones I have that follow this same pattern are also my finest. I was recently testing some slates for a member and it really makes a difference when it's being cut from a single piece of stone. Cross grain is faster, more toothy, and a little coarser. Cut straight down the grain they are finer, a little slower, and smoother. Food for thought.
 
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A blade could be maintained any number of ways, but whether or not the resulting edge was satisfactory to the user is another story.
Some people get by with Norton 8k edges, others do not.
Some got by with barber hones, these days no one can.
Some need sub micron diamond paste edges to shave, others can't tolerate those edges.

It's a never ending story, everyone is different and there is a lot of b/s floating around.
So it's impossible for one person to say yes it is or no it isn't because someone might like it and someone else won't and both opinions will be correct.

The Coticule.be BBW 'testing' never impressed me, to be honest.

I've had a literal ton of BBW, some better than others but none of it ever met my expectations for this type of work.
I"m not a fan of it for razors, so for me, no, it's not a go-to honing solution for my shaving happiness. I'll use it to sharpen kitchen knives sometimes though.

BTW, there are people who feel that yellow Coticules aren't good for finishing razors. So no matter what stone, there will be someone who says yes they are, and another that says no they aren't.
 
A blade could be maintained any number of ways, but whether or not the resulting edge was satisfactory to the user is another story.
Some people get by with Norton 8k edges, others do not.
Some got by with barber hones, these days no one can.
Some need sub micron diamond paste edges to shave, others can't tolerate those edges.

It's a never ending story, everyone is different and there is a lot of b/s floating around.
So it's impossible for one person to say yes it is or no it isn't because someone might like it and someone else won't and both opinions will be correct.

The Coticule.be BBW 'testing' never impressed me, to be honest.

I've had a literal ton of BBW, some better than others but none of it ever met my expectations for this type of work.
I"m not a fan of it for razors, so for me, no, it's not a go-to honing solution for my shaving happiness. I'll use it to sharpen kitchen knives sometimes though.

BTW, there are people who feel that yellow Coticules aren't good for finishing razors. So no matter what stone, there will be someone who says yes they are, and another that says no they aren't.
Do you have a link to the testing(is it still up)? I've not seen it and am interested in reading it.
 
A blade could be maintained any number of ways, but whether or not the resulting edge was satisfactory to the user is another story.
Some people get by with Norton 8k edges, others do not.
Some got by with barber hones, these days no one can.
Some need sub micron diamond paste edges to shave, others can't tolerate those edges.

It's a never ending story, everyone is different and there is a lot of b/s floating around.
So it's impossible for one person to say yes it is or no it isn't because someone might like it and someone else won't and both opinions will be correct.

The Coticule.be BBW 'testing' never impressed me, to be honest.

I've had a literal ton of BBW, some better than others but none of it ever met my expectations for this type of work.
I"m not a fan of it for razors, so for me, no, it's not a go-to honing solution for my shaving happiness. I'll use it to sharpen kitchen knives sometimes though.

BTW, there are people who feel that yellow Coticules aren't good for finishing razors. So no matter what stone, there will be someone who says yes they are, and another that says no they aren't.
It’s okay, keep practicing. I have faith you’ll get there 😉
 
Do you have a link to the testing(is it still up)? I've not seen it and am interested in reading it.
I believe this is what Gamma is referring to. I don’t believe they ever continued the research. I think they were also working on mixing BBW slurry on coticule.

If I remember correctly the thought is, while the garnet’s are bigger (.40micron I think) due to the shape the don’t cut as deep as the yellow coticule garnet (.15micron I think) so in theory the BBW can produce a keener edge.
 

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Yet Bart painted a bbw with enough crox for three dozen strops and used it as slurry in the video specifically dedicated to bbw honing...

 
I believe this is what Gamma is referring to. I don’t believe they ever continued the research. I think they were also working on mixing BBW slurry on coticule.

If I remember correctly the thought is, while the garnet’s are bigger (.40micron I think) due to the shape the don’t cut as deep as the yellow coticule garnet (.15micron I think) so in theory the BBW can produce a keener edge.
Thank you posting up that study. Very interesting reading.

However, I've seen garnet size all over the place with BBW. From consistently fine to consistently large (both on vintage BBW), to inconsistent size (on modern BBW). Garnet density as well can be all over the place.

Has anyone actually confirmed that the garnets in BBW are different than the spessartine garnets in coticules?
 
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Yet Bart painted a bbw with enough crox for three dozen strops and used it as slurry in the video specifically dedicated to bbw honing...

😂😂😂😂😂 im dead. I saw that video, I thought it was a joke at first. It looked like a cake was being iced. I don't know about all that.
 
I believe this is what Gamma is referring to. I don’t believe they ever continued the research. I think they were also working on mixing BBW slurry on coticule.

If I remember correctly the thought is, while the garnet’s are bigger (.40micron I think) due to the shape the don’t cut as deep as the yellow coticule garnet (.15micron I think) so in theory the BBW can produce a keener edge.
I mixed both when I first started using coticules. If you can tweak it right, the method has its place but there's better/ easier ways. I never did it with a razor though. I don't have many bbws I would shave off of, but the ones I would, I love.
 
A lot of things in that video are just not right. The finger right on the face of the blade when the blade is a full hollow and he's doing rapid halfstrokes kind of annoys me more than the chromium oxide... Like the crox is just admitting the stone can't get you where you need to be, the finger is just awful technique.
 
I was in-between kid pickups this afternoon, and figured why not lap the BBW side of this antique natural combo flat!

This particular coticule is probably a natural combo dressante, and it came out of the famous Philadelphia basement hoard! It originally had German stamps on the surface, but they are long gone now! The coticule side is pretty darn top flight as far as razor hones go, and it gives up quintessential coticule edges.

At any rate, the BBW is pretty nice looking, and it does have some black/blue orbs up in the top half of the BBW surface. I was just fooling around with a throw away razor to see if I wanted to finish my JMP on it tomorrow…the answer is that I do!

I think it is going to be another WINNER!

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I was in-between kid pickups this afternoon, and figured why not lap the BBW side of this antique natural combo flat!

This particular coticule is probably a natural combo dressante, and it came out of the famous Philadelphia basement hoard! It originally had German stamps on the surface, but they are long gone now! The coticule side is pretty darn top flight as far as razor hones go, and it gives up quintessential coticule edges.

At any rate, the BBW is pretty nice looking, and it does have some black/blue orbs up in the top half of the BBW surface. I was just fooling around with a throw away razor to see if I wanted to finish my JMP on it tomorrow…the answer is that I do!

I think it is going to be another WINNER!

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My finest bbw has the grain running lengthwise like this one. I think e evert other one I have the run diagonally. Def looks like good one, and big too.
 
Those were in a barbers estate right?
All I know is there was a huge cache of 100+ year old coticules discovered in the basement of some building in Philadelphia, and that a gent was selling a few at a time on eBay.

I have two that came out of the cache…this one, and an Old Rock Coticule that was a gift from a pal! They are both quite excellent!

This is a picture of the original stamp when it arrived, and before I lapped it!
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