In January 2010 (a year ago), the research team of Coticule.be started an extensive experiment with the goal of determining the capabilities for honing razors of the Belgian Blue Whetstone. Are they capable to reclaim a dull edge with a bevel that requires some work? Are they capable of bringing that edge to sufficient sharpness for shaving? Are they capable to finish a razor's edge? And if so, how smooth is that finish?

The report was finalised last week and published yesterday. If you like working with natural hones, and are looking for a more affordable alternative to a Coticule, you will probably find it quite interesting. Coticule.be's Research Team have attempted to study the capabilities of Belgian Blue Whetstone to put a satisfactory shaving edge on a straight razor by letting two random exemplars compete against a Belgian Coticule of premium reputation. The results show that a random group of eight straight razor users found BBWs capable of successfully sharpening razors with the suggested procedure. A series of blinded tests demonstrated that these edges performed on par with the Coticule edge. While BBWs likely lack the abrasive speed to reach as far into dullness as a Coticule can, once a razor has a decent bevel, a BBW can be considered a valuable alternative for refining and finishing the edge of a straight razor.

So far so good. Enter the Vendorators. As a former member of SRP, I find this thread particularly malicious and shameful. But, as always, there is something to be learnt even from devious lies. In order to appreciate just how rotten this thread is, you have to realise that no single moderator/vendor (henceforth, "vendorator") will make a public statement without previous consultation with the super moderators/vendors (henceforth, "supervendorators"). It is therefore safe to assume that the vendorators speak on behalf of the supervendorators, thus allowing for benign intervention by the latter or their more or less IT savvy so called amininstrators (who, by the way, are more likely than not still looking for a solution to their "we raised the funds for new hardware, now what are we going to do with it" problem).

1. "I actually think BBW's are already one of the better documented hones out there." I remember a sketch where someone said "I actually think" and was interrupted by, "Oh, really?" Any road, a forum is not documentation. A forum is a sewer, and we all know what floats best in sewers. The feeble attempt at aggregating what pitifully little factual information there was in SRP's Wiki has by now been effectively killed by one vendor and his lackeys.
2. "Those are extremely small samples sizes". Yes, and it says so in the report. Stating the obvious is stupid, stating the obvious because one has not read what one writes about is idiotic.
3. "On top of it all, they are selling the BBW." One should probably not attribute to malice what can be explained by mere idiocy? But if you want to buy a Coticule/BBW, the site lists most relevant vendors: http://www.coticule.be/Rec_web.html.
4. "It is extremely hard to be impartial when you have a vested interest in the product you are reviewing, no matter how hard the parties involved try." I could not agree more. Only that Coticule.be has no vested interest, but SRP's so called management team is chock full of vendors. Two of whom (both vendorators) are making wild accusations in this thread - Honi soit qui mal y pense.
5. "What this report will do, is produce a cool term, like, "Blueucot" and increase BBW Sales." Looks who's talking - a failed vendorator. Well, he's still a vendorator, but he failed at selling what he would call "Coti's" or Coticules.
6. "They sell both the Couticle and the BBW. I would say that they, more than anyone else, have a vested interest in the sale of both of those hones." Maybe it is both malice and idiocy. And diylseixa.
7. "In a truly scientific study, an impartial third party is always the way to go." I wonder what the opposite of a truly scientific study would be. But that is beside the point. The report was aimed at refuting a number of theories (the ever popular "a BBW works like a 4k synthetic hone, and cannot be used for finishing" among them), and has done so within the limits described in the report. Nothing more, nothing less. 
8. "There were limitations to the study. Several of those have been pointed out in this thread. I believe the Discussion section of the study anticipated all of them. There are no definitive, final studies." All it takes is someone with a truly scientific background, and all becomes clear. The thread should actually have ended after this post. 
9. "Isn't that what this forum is all about? Finding different ways to use and maximize the results of the various stones?" Apparently not. As pointed out by a participant in this thread, it is a bit odd that a vendorator first slanders another forum owner - and silently banned former member - and then tries to call everyone to reason (for values of reason = "everything that helps do away with empiric evidence that cannot be reconciled with the half digested sciolism that is SRP's idea of documentation").

This thread is shameful, and its protagonists are a disgrace to the shaving scene. Allegedly, these hillbillies are in it for the love of razors and the promotion of the hobby. Yeah, right. And that is why far more than 50% of their manglement team are vendors. Or supervendorators. Or spineless, scheming liars. Disgusting.

Oh, yeah. You can hone and maintain a razor with a BBW. Which means that unless you intend to enter the commercial circle jerk and require  a means to maximise profit by mass honing razors, you will only need a BBW (€35) and maybe a 1k synthetic to speed things up (€15).

PS Apparently, an IQ lower than 80 is a basic requirement for a mendor at SRP these days. This poll has been voted for by one guy who apparently needed less than 8 minutes to hone the same razor twice and test shave, and a mendor who came up with this little gem: "Coticule is a hone people used for sharpening , BBW is a stone people used as a bricks for homes ,sideways etc." Apparently, he honed his test razor on a sideway. Congratulations, SRP, for coming up with this unique approach to statistics.