Thread: ONE COTICULE HONING

WARNING: Honing content.

Honing story number 2. I got in a T. Hessen Bruch & Co perfection warranted 5/8 half hollow or so square point razor last night in pretty good shape.

The ebay ad stated that he had been shaving with it, and that it was recently honed by a professional. I always take these statements with a grain of salt, and generally I'll dull it and resharpen it myself anyway, but in any event, it wasn't very sharp by my standards. One of the sharper ebay razors I've bought, I guess, but it wouldn't really shave arm hair on half the blade, and the other half just barely did. A couple quick passes over the beer bottle bottom and it was no longer shaving much of anything

I went with the same progression as my last razor with this method. Milky slurry, 30 passes at a time. I did X strokes again, although I did try 15x each way with diagonal passes and again I'm just not comfortable with it. I think it took me on the order of 75-100 passes (I don't really count) to get it shaving arm hair throughout the edge. The toe needed a bit of work on one side.. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I ironed it out. One thing to note is that I used the same coticule I used on the dubl duck I did a couple days ago, and this time the slurry barely darkened at all, whereas last time it was darkening within 10 passes and very dark after 30. After 30x with this razor, it was probably as dark as 8-10 with that duck. I'm not sure if this razor is harder steel or what?

Anyway, after it was shaving arm hair reliably on the entire edge, I moved on to a lighter slurry for 30 light laps, added the tape, watered down the slurry, did 30 more light laps, rinsed and finished with 50 very light laps with water only. At this point, it was definitely sharp. Not passing HHT perfectly, but doing pretty well. It was also passing my other tests decently, but not perfectly. I was tempted to shave with it as it was, or at least strop and recheck it, but something came over me and I wanted to hit the pastes, knowing that the pastes had brought that duck to the next level. I left the tape on and hit 15x on the chromium oxide pasted balsa paddle, after which it was passing the HHT pretty nicely. I followed this with 10x on the < 0.5 micron red pasted balsa paddle. At this point, this razor was sharp.. one of the sharpest I've ever had. I hit 60 laps smooth cotton, and 60 laps leather, and WOW, it became THE sharpest razor I own. Passing HHT effortlessly on every point of the blade. I honestly thought I would never get a blade that would pass HHT so effortlessly. I was kind of excited. I mean, I've been honing all my own blades and having great shaves regardless of passing HHT, but this one was in another league.

Anyway, the shave this morning was outstanding. One of, if not my best shave to date. Probably the closest shave my neck has seen with a straight yet (without tearing it apart with several passes and too much pressure). It was very clear during the shave that this razor was super sharp, and also, I remembered how much I love the heavier grinds. This one is between a 1/4 and 1/2 hollow, which I was really digging.

At the risk of jacking up ebay prices on these relatively rare razors, I must say, this is my second T. Hessen Bruch and I'm floored with how great it shaves, just like it's cousin. Two of my very best shavers for sure.

Ohhh..>Now I wish my combo stone had a thicker Coti layer...I'm afraid I'm going to wear it away with slurry!

Bart, thanks for your work on this. I LOVE the idea of a one-hone, natural stone honing setup. Now to scrape up the money for a nice big coticule!

I dulled my henckles #50 and tried this method on it last night. I will use it today and let you guys know.

My main mission is to dull my 7/9 Joseph Rodgers Wedge and then get it to be sharp like my first razor honed this way, which quickly became my favorite razor.

I think Bart actually found the best secret to date on honing with just a coticule, the tape makes a big difference.

Do you guys follow up this method with some kind of paste or higher grit stone or do you stop at the coticule with water?

Originally Posted by Dups

Do you guys follow up this method with some kind of paste or higher grit stone or do you stop at the coticule with water?

I used to follow up my Coticule--BBW--Coticule progression with CrO when I felt I needed extra keenness. With this new method I haven't used any pastes though, I think the tape brings the edge to a sharper level and I have been getting great results with my beat up Wilkinson that I found in an antique shop for 3$ last week. I think if you set the bevel correctly and evenly in the first step, then you won't really need pastes after you add sharpness with the spine taped in step 4.

Have you felt that you need to strop on pastes after this honing method?

Originally Posted by Dups

Do you guys follow up this method with some kind of paste or higher grit stone or do you stop at the coticule with water?

As I mentioned previously, with the first razor I tried this way, I noticed a nice jump in sharpness and smoothness during the shave by hitting the pastes after trying straight off the coticule. And on the second razor I've tried, I jumped straight from the coticule to the pastes and saw a significant increase in sharpness. I'm not sure if this is partially related to just how sharp a particular coticule can get you? Or if it's a technique issue? Or if I just really like the sharpest possible edge? I'm not sure, but it's a noticeable difference that I really like, so I'm going to keep doing it.

This is not to say that you can't shave straight off the coticule. It's still very sharp and entirely possible, and it's not a bad shave at all, it's just that so far I've found that adding the pastes is even better.

I'm fairly certain I'm addicted to the pastes though. Until I acquire a nakayama or shapton 30k or similar, I'm going to keep using them after just about everything. I also think it makes a difference if it's a paddle strop or a hanging strop that you have pasted. The balsa paddles I have pasted are basically like using another hone. But the hanging pasted strop I don't like as much as it flexes too much for my taste. You have to be even more careful, and no matter how careful you are, it seems to me that it will round the edge more than on the balsa. So depending on the pasting setup, you may have different results?

I did the method and did'nt use any paste did'nt need it .

Just a quik question does any one on the forum actualy shave of the yellow coticule with out the double bevel and actualy get a good shave. I no bart has said some of his best shavers have been straight of coticule but the results are a bit inconsistant. Untill i realized my slurry was to heavy i could'nt get a good shave atall once i got my slurry right and slowly weened it down and then finished with water i can say i can get a razor shave ready. because i had a bad experiance with slurry at first it put me off the coticule but now i understand it better i get the results. Is there any one who just owns one yellow and finds it does all they need?

I don't know that much about pastes.
In the beginning of my straight shaving career, I relied on Dovo red paste to get my razor shaveready. I had to hit the pasted strop every 2 to 3 shaves, probably due to having an abrasive beard. I don't have that issue with honed edges, and I'm not the only one with that experience. I have speculated that this is related to the sharpening direction, and that pastes have a tendency to create an edge out of bur-like material, instead of exposing solid steel from the core of the blade. I do not wish to go into all that right now. I've been involved in enough heated debates about that topic. For those interested, here are a couple of old threads. Do bring your boots...
http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...fiction-6.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/basic...hen-paste.html

After I weened myself off the red paste, I experimented with CrO. Again I found that the effect rather quickly fades and drops to the "honed level" of the edge. I don't know if this is the same for all razors, all beards, and most importantly, all abrasive compounds.
So please don't read this as if I have anything against the use of pastes. It's just that I try to avoid them myself.

For that reason, I always strop a razor on clean leather first. I compare the HHT result right off the Coticule with that after the strop. I usually get a 2 point improvement (the method is in the Wiki: Hanging Hair Test, from trick to probing method - Straight Razor Place Wiki)
If not I'll include the linen before more leather and probe again. For simplicity, the final step in the procedure I shared in this thread says to strop on linen and leather, but that's not how I do it myself. I'll always start with only leather first. In the majority of cases that's enough.
If also the linen doesn't bring the edge into alignment, I may include 5-10 laps on a taut loom strop with CrO. If that doesn't do it, something definitely went wrong during the honing.
So far, with this new procedure, I have not felt the need to go to the CrO a single time.

Best regards,
Bart.

Bart, have you ever tried this method on a delicate razor that you didn't want to damage the spine of, such that you used a layer of tape when setting the initial bevel, and then two layers for the second bevel? I assume it would work the same, but I was curious if you've tried it.