Bought a lot from the french baker (ebay coticules)

[SliceOfLife]

So I finally wound up picking a lot of stones from the French baker who sells coticules on eBay. I believe the rumor was he has a source for seconds/ardennes scrap and he mixes that in with vintage stones he finds at flea markets/etc.

This lot should be all seconds/scrap from the look of it, and I've wanted to try it out.

He tends to get a lot of AWESOME LOOKING hybrid and mixed material... but I've always been suspicious much of it is more decorative than a decent hone... and I've seen reviews ranging from guys who love their stones from him and say they're just as good as Ardennes stuff and others who say it's hit or miss.

We will see.

 

[Wid]

Incoming

Is this part of the estate sale he bought?

 

[SliceOfLife]

First things first. It was all well packed and arrived in a few days (so $50 shipping still buys you something!)

I knew the stones were small, but I was surprised. Been awhile since I've handled stones this size, and while all are big enough to use... they are definitely small.


Estate sale? The only description he gave was: “Vintage and old collection with fails or thin layers, other have natural vein”.

As noted, I suspect it's mostly fantasy and just from the looks of the material (it shows ZERO age); Im thinking he's got a buddy who works at Ardennes or knows where they dump and sneaks him out boxes of scrap to fix up and sell.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Now on to the stones:


1: This was the stone I was most hopeful about. It looks like a pretty typical coti to me. Has one slightly brittle/porous area, but doesn't feel bad over it. After a quick lapping, I expect it'll be a fairly standard ardennes-quality stone. My guess is it was tossed due to size (it'd be a size 1-2 bout and really only good to them to make slurry stones out of)

2: This one is probably the coolest stone. It's very clearly a triple-hybrid. It's got yellow coti, it's got les lat, it's got BBW... all swirled together. Depending on what angle I took while lapping it, I got hybrid slurry, BBW slurry or Coti slurry.
The bad? Well first off... is that gonna be a good hone? Probably work like a really fast BBW I'm guessing. Second, there's a LOT of cracks around the edges and it was not really cleaned up. My DMT is making quick work of cleaning it... but as with anything with some hybrid in it... maybe there'll be too many faults to use it.

3: This feels like a dead standard coti to me. If nothing else is usable, I expect this will be. Honestly if it was larger, I'd be excited about this. Seems like a nice (but small) chunk of solid coti.

4: Don't let the looks fool you, this side isn't hybrid. Strikes me as a pretty standard Green Les Lat (from Au Preu quarry was it?) on the backside... but that's nowhere near flat and with hybrid hardness, it'd be a lot of work to get it flat. This side is the soft side of the Yellow vein in Les Lat... with some green streaks. It's crazy soft. Almost "too" soft... which is the complaint I've heard a few guys level at the stones they've bought from this guy. Will be a quick and easy one to test though.

5: Ok this is just fun. Straight up grey stone with some BBW decoration. The grey side has a big gouge that goes through about half the stone (so no lapping past it)... it's that purple oval in the picture. Honestly, this doesn't strike me much as a coti at all... but it's pretty damn cool looking.

6: This one I wasn't super hopeful for... but it may surprise me. It's Les Lat I think... Seems a niceish hybrid on the one side, with a very thin soft yellow layer that got smushed into the BBW on the other side making for a wicked soft BBW layer. I suspect this is the "Good/exciting" stone he throws in the lot to avoid returns if everything else turns out to be junk. It's ~1.75x4" les lat... probably worth just enough (if it's good) to keep someone who is disappointed with the rest of the lot from returning it.


So, I will test this weekend... But just from some lapping and look/feel up close... I'm pleasantly surprised. I expect at least 2-3 of these will be somewhat usable stones (though small)... which was the high end of my expectations. We'll know when I get some razors on them though.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Test 1: The lil guy.


Feels like a fast coti (both sides) under the razor. HHT was above avg for a coti.

Shave:

If your favorite shave is a coti shave, you would love this stone. This shave should be in the dictionary under coticule shave. That tiny bit of tug that makes me wish it was just a tiny bit sharper, but not enough to actually slow the razor down or be irritating, and that constant feeling like it will never cut you. In the end a shave that is definitely a step below a Thuri or other top end finish, but plenty good to where if comfort is your #1 priority, you'd feel pleased.

Verdict: Presumption was right. This is a nice, fast, very average finishing coticule. Better than the worst Ardennes coti I've owned, slightly better than the avg Ardennes coti I've owned, but not a top tier coti certainly. If this thing were 8x2 and square, Ardennes would slap some slate on the back and sell it for $300 and not hear a word of complaint.



Stone 3 is a good/viable razor hone.



edit: Just prepped for tomorrows shave/test and two notes:

1. I found evidence that one stone (at least) is either vintage or was used by the seller for a significant amount of time before being sold to me.
2. It's gonna be a pretty exciting reveal tomorrow (though not ENTIRELY a surprise to me... kind of a "I didn't dare hope" situation).

 

[cotedupy]

Very cool!

I think I had a little early bid on that lot from memory... they looked fun and interesting at the very least.

 

[marv]

I remember these stones. I was following too, but when I saw the seller, I stopped bidding I hope you get good results in your tests. even if it is not, it would be a nice combination of stones for your aquarium

 

[SliceOfLife]

I was actually trying to win the one that wound up going for ~$200 shipped (Incredibly cool looking stone)... but when it was under $100, I figured I'd throw a few more of his stones in there so the shipping didn't hurt so much.

Then that one got bid into the stratosphere past where I was comfortable bidding on a stone I wasn't certain would be a good hone and the other listing I also was bidding on of a lot of three larger stones (which had a nice big hunk of coti... that buyer got a steal if those stones are good) I got sniped on. Really wish I'd gone higher on that one, after seeing that this piece I tested today is a good stone (The middle/biggest piece from that lot was similar to this stone, but like 8" long... size of a big size 10 bout).

 

[rideon66]

I think he gets his stones from a lot of places and some are vintage some are scraps and at one time a lot of what he sold was super hard and came from a wall he purchased. I think most of that stuff was pseudo coticule. So no telling where he got those unless you ask him.

 

[SliceOfLife]

A Wall you say?

Like he bought it as/on a piece of property or someone wanted it removed and he broke it up and hauled it?


Man that'd be cool to see pictures of before the disassembly.

 

[rideon66]

If I remember correctly I think it was like a wall on a piece of property and he broke it up and hauled it away. I had a conversation with him about it years ago.

 

[kcb5150]

What annoyed me with him was when he was assigning known Ardennes vein names to random scraps and selling them to people who were too green to know better.

 

[rideon66]

A piece of conversation I was able to find from years back.

Stones cut and elaborated by us, from Belgian purple / blue rock (BBW, Rouge du Salm). From a wall dating from 1930 that our contact proposed to us for destruction.
The cut is tender but at the same time complex because a sensitive stone depending on the direction of the cut, a stone very appreciated for knives, razors or other tools (Gouges, shears, ...)
i have buy lot of rocks to a person sell it in Ottré . he break a wall and i have buy a parts of this ...not all

I bought a big pile of stones / rocks and I did not know what I bought so thanks to this wall dating from 1930 I cut stones, some are good / very good / and others bad and I don't sell

I assume his knowledge on coticules has increased spending sometime at the mine and in that regard I don't see those green super hard stones he used to call La verte that were not and those were the clue that lead me to the pseudo coticule. A lot of these from the wall seemed to sell to Italians for whatever reason and from talking with Nicolas these were all very hard stones that one could not really slurry without a diamond plate.

 

[Wid]

I have one he labeled a La Vert. My one and only I got from him. It’s usable but not the easiest stone to use. The brown side is super hard.

 

[rideon66]

Maybe the color on here, but doesn't look as green as the ones I was talking about that I saw sold in the past. I spoke with a member years back who got two in a row and he returned since they were not coticule and on the third time he got a real coticule.

 

[rideon66]

I have one he labeled a La Vert. My one and only I got from him. It’s usable but not the easiest stone to use. The brown side is super hard. View attachment 1551579View attachment 1551580

To my eye that one could be a hybrid this is an example of the green ones I was talking about.

 

[Wid]

To my eye that one could be a hybrid this is an example of the green ones I was talking about.

View attachment 1551599

It was listed as a la vert when I bought it. The brown side very much acts like a hybrid, extremely hard.

 

[Calou]

Hybride Green, very hard, with a bit of coticule in it.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Oh yeah. I remember those "la vertes". Probably what made me suspicious of these stones way back when he first appeared.

 

[Calou]

Me too, and finally the curiosity was stronger. no regrets for this time