I was fortunate enough to come upon what I consider one of the rarest, best honing stones in existence...and I am now the humble owner. It's a genuine Belgium Yellow Coticule and Blue Whetstones from the Ardennes in Belgium; it was cut from where the two veins met, where the highest density of garnet crystals occur. This stone is quite old, but you can not tell by looking at it. There are no foreign inclusions whatsoever on either side; it's half yellow, and half blue with a distinctive blurry line where the two stones meet. This is important to make note of because there are a lot of false "combo" stones out there where a yellow is simply glued to a blue. This is the genuine article; the appraiser said the yellow side has a garnet percentage of upwards of 70% and the blue side 50%. This is unheard of with traditional blues and yellows of today, and for the majority of those mined over the years. The stone is absolutely gorgeous and hones like no other stone I've ever used before in my life
The wet-spots on the stone are from my fingers; it's very glossy, which I was told means that it is as close to perfect as possible. It's by far the best Belgium coticule I've come across in a very long time. It's such a beautiful stone that I don't want to hone on it! I've never actually seen a stone from the meeting of the veins until I purchased this one. Let me know what you think...
The wet-spots on the stone are from my fingers; it's very glossy, which I was told means that it is as close to perfect as possible. It's by far the best Belgium coticule I've come across in a very long time. It's such a beautiful stone that I don't want to hone on it! I've never actually seen a stone from the meeting of the veins until I purchased this one. Let me know what you think...
