Thread: ONE COTICULE HONING

Originally Posted by pjrage

Thanks Bart. I wasn't sure if the swarf was good, bad, or indifferent for it, so I just figured better safe than sorry. Does noticeable swarf after ~10 strokes, and very dark near black swarf after ~30x mean it's a fast coticule btw? I don't have much basis for comparison, so I'm just curious if that's normal, fast, super fast, or whatever.

That's a fast one. I bet it rivals a DMT-E.

Originally Posted by pjrage

Also, how about when the slurry starts to go very dry after numerous passes? Should I refresh it then? It starts to get to the point that it looks and feels like I'm honing on a just-about-dry hone with sand on it.

I keep the slurry from going dry by adding drops of water as I go along. If the slurry gets real dry, the dulling effect on the very tip of the bevel obviously becomes greater.

Originally Posted by gary haywood

Bart if i have a blade that is shaving ok could i tape spine and perform say 30 to 50 strokes on water with out having to start from dulling.

All that really matters is that you have a fully developed first bevel with flat faces.
If you perform the downstroke on glass with such a razor, it takes less than 30 laps on slurry to complete the bevel. Maybe only 10 or so. But if you're absolutely sure that the bevel meets all parameters, than I'd skip the downstroke and refresh it with 10 strokes on slurry before taping it.

I found a Wilkinson Straight razor at an antique shop near me for 3$. I snagged it since it had basically no rusting and no damages on the edge. It couldn't shave cigarette smoke though so I figured I Would try this method.

I am missing tape, so the second step will have to wait, but last night I was able to set the bevel and cut my arm hair with the coticule and slurry. It took about 8 sets of 30 with the Japanese stroke to do it, but it worked! Tonight I will try the following steps with electrical tape and then do a test shave post polishing step.

The thing I am most excited about is that my coticule is very fast at cutting and develops a heavy gray to black metal build up in the slurry after about 20 laps. I didn't have a slurry stone before so I didn't know how fast my coticule actually was. I am also excited that I don't have to buy 40 more hones to set bevels.

Thanks for sharing, Nick.
I'm looking forward to your results.

Best regards,
Bart.

I'm surprised there isn't any more stories on this thread about rehoning with Bart's method. C'mon, Guys, dull your razors and try this out! With that being said, I will tell my story.

I found a Wilkinson Straight in an antique shop in Cold Spring NY. By the way the shop had a ton of Wade and butcher Wedges for 200$ (!!!!) and they were butter knife dull. That was annoying because if they were as cheap as the Wilkinson (3$) I would've taken them all. The Wilkinson seemed ok, no pitting, no rust, and just some dirt in the scales. I washed them out when I got home and all was well. The blade even shined a little after the cleaning. This blade was extremely dull, so dull that even if I pressed HARD into my forearm to shave it, it would do nothing, it wouldn't even bother the skin. I was going to send out the razor, then I found this thread.

I will now mention that with my beard, it takes about four passes to get a close shave. It is one hell of a battle to remove my stubble with any razor I have ever used. All my straights from the honemeisters here work great, but a brillo pad beard doesn't die easily. I will also say that I did the method Bart discribed in the second post of this thread.

1) slurry and one sided (japanese strokes) 30X each. Do them again and again until the blade can shave your arm.
2) slurry with X strokes about 30-50 passes (I think I did near 50, I didn't count much).
3) dilute slurry slightly and rinse razor, do about 30X strokes with the spine of the razor taped with electrical tape.
4) Rinse coticule and blade and do about 50 passes on just water. Then strop your razor and shave.

It was the best shave I have ever had with a straight. I own the following razors:

A restored Bengal from fine-razors.de honed and all.
A Henckles #50 shave ready
A 7/8 Joseph Rodgers and Sons Wedge
A GOTTA Hamburg Ring 120 extra hollow from OLD_SCHOOL
and finally a WAPI from Ken at Ruprazor

I am really anxious to hear how you guys did with this method, I am very happy I found this thread. I should also mention that I have NEVER honed a razor from start to finish before in my life. I never even set a bevel before.

You guys are getting me seriously curious about this. I have a dmt 1200, BBW and a coticule. I have a quick question though. My razor is currently shave ready so should I completely ruin the edge and start all over again on the coticule? Also I usually like to keep my razors looking new so I always hone with tape. If I decide to use tape should I add a second layer after I'm done with the heavy slurry?

thanks!

I think the secret is to have a fast cutting coticule. I didn't know mine was fast cutting until I did the first step and within 10 strokes the slurry on the coticule was blackened. Do you have any other razors to try this on? Maybe you won't need to dull your daily used razor.

I know from now on I won't need to buy shave ready razors, which is great!

I only have two razors right now. My main razor is a Dovo SS #41. It's a fine razor, but I'm sure it could be better. I can set the bevel really easily with my DMT 1200 but I'm not sure the belgian blue and coticule really take it to the next level. I've heard people saying that the dmt leaves very deep scratches so I'm wondering if the blue and coticule completely remove those scratches.

Originally Posted by Dups

You guys are getting me seriously curious about this. I have a dmt 1200, BBW and a coticule. I have a quick question though. My razor is currently shave ready so should I completely ruin the edge and start all over again on the coticule? Also I usually like to keep my razors looking new so I always hone with tape. If I decide to use tape should I add a second layer after I'm done with the heavy slurry?

thanks!

It would of course be best to take a razor that actually needs honing. Although I have honed perfectly shaving razors, many times. But those are cheap Double Arrows that I specifically use for honing experiments.

I have honed up a Bartmann 504 today. It has fancy spinework, so I started with one layer of tape, and added a second layer later. I got the same great edge that I have consistently been getting on all razors I tried so far. Still need to shave with the Bartmann, later on tonight, but it silently severs hair on my HHT, so I'm confident in the shaving results.

Best regards,
Bart.

Hey guys,

Just tried the method. I still haven't shaved with it but it seems to have done a decent job. The only thing I noticed is that when I try to do 30 passes on the same side of the blade the coticule was getting really dry and the dark slurry was mainly concentrated at one end of the coticule..Is this normal? It doesn't seem to be much of a problem when I do my normal X-strokes though..

Originally Posted by Dups

Hey guys,

Just tried the method. I still haven't shaved with it but it seems to have done a decent job. The only thing I noticed is that when I try to do 30 passes on the same side of the blade the coticule was getting really dry and the dark slurry was mainly concentrated at one end of the coticule..Is this normal? It doesn't seem to be much of a problem when I do my normal X-strokes though..

I have noticed that too. But what little slurry runs along with the razor, seems to be enough to do the work. I do add a drop of water, whenever the slurry really starts becoming dry. As Gary pointed out, you can also do normal X-strokes on slurry, with a light pressure. It will only take a bit longer. The main goal at step 3 is doing the bulk of the work. Step 4 - the regular no significant pressure X-strokes - is included to perfect the work of step 3.

Please let us know about the shave, Dups.
Thanks for posting,

Bart.