is a BBW a coticule? i just wondered if the BBW side is a coti or just the creamy yellow side. i do not know. tom
BBW Question?
- Thread starter tomjr
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AFAIK the Belgian Blue Whetstone side is just that; BBW..The term "coticule" refers to the yellow side in most cases....A "combo" stone is when the BBW and coticule are connected, whether naturally or man-made (like the old ones were), but the whole stone is/was known as a coticule (The BBW backing was just for reinforcement....nowadays they use a slate..)....Some "rustic" coticules have no BBW or slate backing at all; it's all yellow...
I don't think the BBW backing was originally intended to be used for honing, but now people have found that it's usable for honing...
I don't think the BBW backing was originally intended to be used for honing, but now people have found that it's usable for honing...
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Technically no, although very closely related, and use the same process (little abrasive garnets) to hone. The yellow side has more little garnets.
I don't know that there is an absolute truth over whether BBW on most combo stones was meant for honing originally. We know that they were used for honestones. We've gotten plenty of BBW's (with no coticule in sight) with decades if not a century or more of history as tool hones out of old boxes, sheds, etc. It's not as if people were unaware that BBW could be used as hones in the past. However, there was definitely a sense that the Coticule was vastly superior (most likely related to speed, as that was prized in old honing stones), and many vintage boxed combo's make no reference to the use of the BBW at all, the assumption being it's just there to stabilize the Yellow coticule. I myself haven't found a barber kit where the BBW appears to have seen much use, the BBW's I've gotten have ALL been used with tools. Often times there will be awl or hook gouging on the bbw side of combo stones (using the coticule side for most stuff and the BBW for stuff that screws up the stone).
The argument against bbw as a combo stone seems to be that not all BBW is good to hone on... while this may be the case, I imagine that most of the problems (not all, but most) that would make a BBW a poor stone to hone on, would likewise make its mated yellow side polluted as well, so I'd be very surprised to find more than an extremely rare case of a combo coticule with a good yellow side and a bad blue side.
That said, coticule is a horrible name for a specific stone as it has meant many different things. It has at different times meant whetstone. Spessartine-containing stone. Spessartine-containing whetstone. Spessartine-containing whetstone with Manganese. The list goes on. I remember one guy mentioning a bed of Spessartine garnet containing rock in a thin layer of yellow/blue much like belgian coticules are in, located in iceland and arguing over whether he should call it coticule or not. There's actually several documents of people researching Belgian Coticules and similar rocks who lament the fact that there are so damn many meanings for the word coticule.
The argument against bbw as a combo stone seems to be that not all BBW is good to hone on... while this may be the case, I imagine that most of the problems (not all, but most) that would make a BBW a poor stone to hone on, would likewise make its mated yellow side polluted as well, so I'd be very surprised to find more than an extremely rare case of a combo coticule with a good yellow side and a bad blue side.
That said, coticule is a horrible name for a specific stone as it has meant many different things. It has at different times meant whetstone. Spessartine-containing stone. Spessartine-containing whetstone. Spessartine-containing whetstone with Manganese. The list goes on. I remember one guy mentioning a bed of Spessartine garnet containing rock in a thin layer of yellow/blue much like belgian coticules are in, located in iceland and arguing over whether he should call it coticule or not. There's actually several documents of people researching Belgian Coticules and similar rocks who lament the fact that there are so damn many meanings for the word coticule.
