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In The Year Of Our Lord 1794, A Very Busy Coticule

timwcic

"Look what I found"
This was an astonishing find from one of my estate sellers. Found in a box with several carbos, wrapped in a page of the Denver Post from 1972. A strangely shaped Coticule that is 2 inches wide and 10 inches overall length. Don’t know why it is this shape, put looks to have been cut this way. All of the edges on the bottom are rounded the same. Was heavily caked in funk so it needed a good bath. After getting a good scrub, under the gunk, it has some Coti personality. Manganese lines and some dot cover the surface and a possible hybrid layer showing on the side. Cracks, voids, faults are all over and a suntan??? on one corner. A big discovery is the writing on the bottom adds another level of WOW, just barely surviving in the BBW, it is engraved “ In The Year Of Our Lord 1794”. Yes, very WOW. It has been heavily used during it’s life, deeply dished. It is 7/8” at the ends but 5/8 in the center. Even this dished, the Coticule layer is still 10mm thick at the center. This stone has a lot going on. Surprising that something this fragile survived all these years not in a case for protection. I sit back and wonder if this honed a razor of our forefathers. Have not decided if I am going lap——-yet.

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Nice stone, the tongue shape was typicall in that time, lapping or not this kind of stone is always a dilemma. Enjoy it.
 

timwcic

"Look what I found"
Thanks all. I am leaning to doing nothing. All of the gaps and voids were not there. They were all filled with funk. By cleaning, I may have weakened the stone. It will live as a cabinet queen
 
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David

B&B’s Champion Corn Shucker
Beautiful stone Tim. I’d leave it as a conversation piece. That’s super neat.
 
IMHO it's a museum piece and I would treat it as such.

Now I may have been tempted to take a blade to it just to see how it performed as such but otherwise just leave it be.

Chris
 
tim, i'm just gonna say it. no doubt, the inscription is on the stone, however, in 1794 cursive was not formed as such as is present on the stone. i will leave it to the experts to decide. i provide the following late 18th century cursive example:

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timwcic

"Look what I found"
I am amazed at the things I find at the strangest places. I find them the way I find them. I know not of it’s history or provenance. Everything looks age appropriate for the time frame. All I can confirm is it’s a coti. I know the seller was not trying to scam me. I know him and his business style. If he knew what was on the bottom, if would not have been the $10 I paid for a common stone, but a rare Revolutionary War item for $100
 

timwcic

"Look what I found"
Gotta be one of the coolest things to find ever!
I would not lap that. I would find another stone to use and put that up for display.

Thanks Gents. I will leave it be. I have a couple other stones to use so it will not be missed. I built it a fitted case to rest it’s tired bones. Here it is hanging with some Coti friends

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Legion

Staff member
It's cool how they used to date everything back in those times. Not like now, where everything is designed to get thrown away.
 
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