Thread: Coticule Bout, use with Oil...

Yup, you read right. If you go to Best Sharpening dot com and look up their No 10 Coticule bout, They say to use it with oil? What's funny is on the regular Coticules, the 6x2's and 8x3's, they say use with water...Hmmmm?

Do they know something we don't. I glad I never bought a stone from them.

They can be used with oil. They're not porous, I was told it wouldn't be a big problem to change from oil to water, but I never really tried it. I consider oil to be more "messy".

Bart.

My grandfather used oil on all his stones Coti included. When I lapped it all the solidified oil went away. The coti works very well with water now so I guess it's true, at least mine didn't seem poorly effected.

I purchased an 8" x 3" coticule from them off the fleeb. It was a good price (under $200) and it's a very nice, hard specimen. It is pretty much just like this one in appearance. And it seems to perform just as Bart's description has it on coticule.be . I didn't know anything about this vendor, and worried a bit about what I'd be getting in the mail, but I have to say he was first rate, shipped immediately, and the quality was super.

s.

I've never tried mine with water, but my tiger stripe coticule came from them and I also had a good experience.....but I think I'm with you on not letting Oil touch mine!

EDIT - I meant I never tried my coticule with Oil....I always use water.

Thanks Bart, I talk to Rob in Belgium all the time, I'm gonna have to ask about this one. I never heard of using Oil on a Coti, but if you say so. I was under the impression that they are Water Stones Only. Not only that, but there is no difference, other than size between a bout and a regular coticule, why then, would the vendor say, use water on a 6x2, but to use oil on a Bout now, that makes no sense.....

What I want to know is why the difference in use between a bout and regular old Coticule.
Maybe a typo? I've emailed the vendor 3x and never get any response.

I have some old large Norton Oil Stones I use, but I never let oil near my Coticules. It doesn't seem right...

P.S. I now remember hearing stories of old timers using oil on these hones. We've had members find them at flea markets, with an oily residue, and them wanting to know how to clean the hones.

Just a shot in the dark, but maybe they recommended oil for the smaller stones because it would keep swarf from building up as quickly on the relatively small honing surface. I've heard that's the reason behind using oil on some stones, anyway.

Or maybe it was a typo.

I just couldn't bear putting oil on any of my beloved coticules. I have a charnley forest that I've heard works better with oil than with water. I couldn't bear to put oil on it either. I did use a drop of dish soap and the stone did work better with that.

I don't use soap on my coticules either. OTOH, the old barbers I knew in NJ back in the '80s called coticules "soap stones" and used the lather from their "lather king" hot lather machines as a vehicle for their honing.

Right Jimmy, The same as the Swaty's. They'd use lather on them too....
I couldn't bear to put oil on my coti's either....