Max Knives MK1710 — Blue coticule sharpening stone 4000, bamboo base

Overview

The MK1710 is a sharpening stone in blue coticule, a natural rock quarried in Belgium and worked by hand. Its working surface measures 180 x 60 mm for a thickness of about 16 mm, which leaves room to draw a full kitchen blade across without breaking the stroke. It sits on a non-slip bamboo base of 205 x 85 mm that holds it flat on the worktop. The whole thing weighs 805 g, the stone alone 600 g. A sharpening guide comes with the stone.

What 4000 grit means here

Blue coticule belongs to the fine grits: at 4000 you are no longer reshaping the bevel but refining an edge that is already formed. This is the finishing pass, the one that follows a coarser stone, or the one you use on its own to bring back a blade that has begun to bite less. Like every natural stone, coticule carries no standardised number in the sense of synthetic Japanese stones: the figure of 4000 is a working equivalence, the one commonly accepted for the Belgian blue stone.

Technical specifications

Material: blue coticule, a natural Belgian rock. Grit: 4000. Stone dimensions: 180 x 60 mm, thickness about 16 mm. Base dimensions: 205 x 85 mm. Base: non-slip bamboo. Weight: 805 g for the complete set, 600 g for the stone alone. A sharpening guide is supplied. The stone suits kitchen knives, outdoor knives, and also woodworking tools and carving instruments.

Care

Coticule is used with water: wet the surface before you start and wet it again during the pass. The pale slurry that forms under the blade is part of how the stone works, so do not rinse it away mid-session. Do rinse the stone under clear water after use, then let it dry in open air before putting it away, rather than returning it damp to a closed cupboard. The bamboo base asks for no more than a cloth. Over time a stone hollows in the middle: a pass on a flattening plate restores it.