ARDENNES-COTICULES
UNIQUE SHARPENING STONES FROM THE BELGIAN ARDENNES
ABOUT
Ardennes-Coticule, founded in 1998, continues the activities initiated by the first operator, Burton, in 1865. This includes both the operation of slate quarries and mines, as well as the production and sale of slate for various applications.
Until 1865, production was mainly carried out in local farms in the Vielsalm and Lierneux region of Belgium. Farmers searched and collected stones in the fields and transformed them into whetstones. The entire family was involved in this process. These whetstones were used to sharpen their razors, knives, scissors, axes, chisels, etc.
After 1865, the Coticule stones gained recognition beyond this region. This is also the moment when Mrs. Denise Burton-Walrant lost her husband at a very young age and decided to establish a company called Burton in 1865. Her company had 10 workers, and she rented fields to collect stones. Thanks to her dynamic personality, she aimed to expand her business beyond the borders of Belgium. Until 1900, it was possible to sell her stones in Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, and England. This was highly exceptional as there were limited means of transportation, with the only connection to Liège being the Liège–Luxembourg railway with the local station in Vielsalm. Thanks to her efforts, this small village found its most valuable export product, something the residents of this region are very proud of.
In 1901, her son took over the business and built the current workshop. One of the most important achievements was the installation of the first electricity plant in Lierneux. This plant not only produced electricity for public lighting and local households but also provided power to the new machines in the workshop. Production increased significantly, leading Mr. Burton to acquire small quarries in Regné, Bihain, and Thier del Preu.
Between WWI and WWII, the company reached one of its peaks. During this period, Mrs. Burton-Grandjean took over the management of the company. At this point, she had the capacity to employ 20 workers in the quarries and 32 in the workshop, making the company the primary employer in the area.
In 1954, two brothers and descendants of the family, Prosper and René, took over Burton. They sold whetstones almost worldwide, including Europe, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Congo, India, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. A few years later, the Burton company began to feel competition with the emergence of electric razors and artificial whetstones. René passed away in 1979, and Prosper became the sole owner of the company. By 1982, 117 years after the family started the business, production came to a halt. Unfortunately, they couldn't withstand the challenges posed by new technologies such as advanced shaving tools and changes in family lifestyles. They also couldn't find a way to add extra value to their whetstones to compete with their rivals.
However, it must be acknowledged that the common thread throughout the history of this family is their hard work to make the Coticule famous, leaving the well-known quality in the collective memory of many people.
PRODUCTS
La pierre de Vielsalm, the Coticule, is a natural whetstone with a rich history. The extraction and production of the Coticule in the Belgian Ardennes date back to the 17th century. It is a sedimentary rock formed over 480 million years, consisting of gray-yellow volcanic ashes and clay with embedded hard garnets. These Spessartite Garnets have formed through a rearrangement of minerals under the influence of regional metamorphism. Due to the unpredictability of nature, the Coticule occurs only in thin vertical layers, sandwiched between broad layers of blue-purple slate. Therefore, extraction must be done very meticulously and mainly without the use of machinery. This extraction is a time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly process that can only take place for a few months each year due to various weather conditions. The production is 100% artisanal, making each stone a unique specimen.
The Belgian sharpening stone is composed of 30 to 42% garnets bound together by Mica. It is these garnets that give the Coticule its exceptional sharpening properties. The geometric shape of these garnets is a dodecahedron, consisting of twelve faces connected with obtuse angles. The garnets have a diameter of 5 to 15 microns and penetrate 1 to 3 microns into the metal to be sharpened. This ideal geometric shape (obtuse angles polish the metal) and the abundant presence of these garnets ensure both fast and extremely fine sharpening simultaneously. This results in a razor-sharp edge in just a few minutes, regardless of the object being sharpened.
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