Gentleman,

I am sure that you have all noticed those beautiful Coticule specimen in the Coticule Vault.

Our friends at Ardennes Coticule have been so kind to let me select these hones from their available stock. I have chosen them based on a number of considerations, such as size and shaped, the presence of certain visual indicators of great quality and the reputation of the Coticule layers they come from.

Those 10 hones are still property of Ardennes. They have only lend them to me to assess their capabilities. I have honed 3 to 4 razors on each one of them (still busy actually) and I have written the reports that you can read in the Vault. As you can notice, I'm not completely finished yet.

Soon after I finish the testing, I will return the hones to Ardennes and bring another batch home for further play.
I have asked permission at Ardennes to offer these hand selected, trued and tested Coticules to our members. The sale, shipment and guarantee will still be made by Ardennes.
But you have to order through Coticule.be
Drop me a line at bart@C0ticule.be (replace the zero after the C by the vowel "o")

The price of these hones is decided upon by Ardennes. We take no profit at all (other than that I get to play with these beauties first )
I currently have no idea of prices, but I will make an inquiry and post the prices here once I have them.

Kind regards,
Bart.

Gentlemen,
Today, I updated the Vault with descriptions for n°6 and N°9

N°6 really is a lighting speed, extremely pleasant feedback offering little gem.
What it lacks in size it surpasses in speed.
N°9 is quite different. Quieter, offering a more subdued feedback, it left an amazingly smooth edge.
You won't often catch me comparing differences in edges from various Coticules, but these two hones are so far apart that maybe for the first time ever I could feel a difference during (actually after) the test shave (identical razors) that I cannot attribute to imagination on my behalf.
The shave of both felt the same, but the skin condition of the face half shaved by n°9 was as if I hadn't shaved at all, except for all the stubble was gone. N°6 left my skin clearly more "rejuvenated". You know the feeling that your skin appears newborn when you feel the cool outside air to it after a nice smooth shave? The n°6 edge left my skin in precisely that condition. Both halves were/are equally close shave. We'll see tomorrow if whiskers reappear at different rates...
Edit, 24 hours later: yes they do. what a relief

Hi Bart! I might be interested in Coticule 10 ("La Veinette") in the vault. I would appreciate it if you could contact me regarding a price. You can send an email to my user name at yahoo.com.

Also, would these come with a slurry stone, or would I need to buy one in addition to the stone? If I need to buy one, I would love it if you could offer some suggestions as to where I can get one. Thanks so much!

-Rob

Hello Bart,
I'd love to have hone 006 if no one else is having it. Alternatively, I am also quite interested in 004.
It's such a valuable resource to have someone with so much knowledge of coticules to test these hones, and rate their properties so that we my choose a hone that suits our specific wants/needs.
Thanks for offering this invaluable service.

Connor

Those are some gorgeous stones! They are each so unique with their own characteristics. Would these be considered Standard grade? The Select/Standard thing seems kind of silly since it isn't a measure of capabilities or performance, and actually just a measure of looks.

justin:

Those are some gorgeous stones! They are each so unique with their own characteristics. Would these be considered Standard grade? The Select/Standard thing seems kind of silly since it isn't a measure of capabilities or performance, and actually just a measure of looks.

I don't really know. I chose them from the available stock at Ardennes, a few months ago.
I didn't really bother with asking if they were "standard" or "selected" grade. I think, most of them are sold as "standard".
I'm not sure if the guys at Ardennes are going to exchange the current grades with a system based on the actual layers. They were talking about it. I think they are very busy with producing hones at the moment, and the grading system is not a direct priority. On my next visit in a week or two, I'll ask about it.

Bart.

Descriptions for N°7 and N°8 were added to the Vault.

N°7 makes me sad. It's going to be hard to part of this one.
It's a beautiful Coticule. Possibly the prettiest I have seen so far. You should see it damp. Beautiful giraffe alike mangane specks. It has a deep pink soul at the middle of the surface. It gets even better when a razor is rubbed over it. That typical sound of whispering abrasion. It works like all "Dressantes" I've met so far: fast with slurry and still decent edge refinement on water.

N°8 is a different character. La nouvelle veine. When wet, they all look like coffee with milk, almost no patterning. Very fast when used with slurry. There's a kind of grainy feel present, also typical for these ones I believe. It's not an unpleasant feeling, just evidence of great speed. These are bevel workers "par excellence". The amazing thing is: with water you'd swear it's a different stone. They feel as smooth as it gets, with just a hint of feedback left. The edges are very smooth. It does take a while to bridge the gap, though. With slurry, the sharpness maxes out rather early. It takes some time to make up for that during the diluting phase (When doing Unicot, this is of no consequence).
Of all Coticules in the Vault so far, this is the most versatile, due to its speed with slurry.


N°1 to 10 go all back to the Ardennes Coticule on next Friday, October 2nd.
Those who reserved one will receive e-mail of Ardennes shortly thereafter.

Best regards,
Bart.

What a pretty stone, sold already of course, I would have been quick to buy that one Love the pattern. Buzz me if you ever see one of these again and if it's a very fast cutter

Are they done selling stones out of the vault?

Vektor67:

Are they done selling stones out of the vault?

No, how it works is: once Sir Bart has tested a stone its review gets posted in the vault, if you cant click on a stone its not been reviewed yet, after that its up for grabs, you can stake your claim in this thread and contact Sir Bart through the members details in the machine room, then you need to wait for the stone to be returned to Ardennes and they will deal with you direct... Simples

Hope this helps

Best regards
Ralfson (Dr)

There are a few stones still available for immediate approach (marked in bold in this post.)

The others become available for reservation as soon as I publish results. The current batch will be returned in May.

Best regards,
Bart.

Bart,

Have you returned the batch from Repository II to Ardennes? I was arranging paypal payment with Maurice, but I actually don't know if they already have those stones or not yet.

kind regards,
Matt

Matt:

Bart,

Have you returned the batch from Repository II to Ardennes? I was arranging paypal payment with Maurice, but I actually don't know if they already have those stones or not yet.

kind regards,
Matt

Of course I have. What would be the purpose of sending your e-mail addresses to Ardennes, if they didn't had said whetstones.

Please excuse me, but I dont follow this thread, are all the stones now reserved or are you doing them in batches?
the reason I ask is that I have a friend (Black and tan) who was asking about making a reservation here, and tbh I am not up to speed with it
many thanks and best wishes
Ralfson (Dr)

tat2Ralfy:

Please excuse me, but I dont follow this thread, are all the stones now reserved or are you doing them in batches?
the reason I ask is that I have a friend (Black and tan) who was asking about making a reservation here, and tbh I am not up to speed with it
many thanks and best wishes
Ralfson (Dr)

Check this post. It get regularly updated. If it says "available for immediate reservation", that means exactly what it says.

Kind regards,
Bart.