Thread: New and I need some help

Gents, I recently bought a NOS Solingen made 5/8 Inox from a well regarded vendor in Germany. It was honed and stropped by the owner of the place and came to me 'shave-ready'. The first few shaves I got were fairly good but the razor does still drag and pull a bit. It also does not pass the HHT test and overall, it just does not seem to be as sharp as it ought to be.

I tried to touch it up a bit by passing it over a Belgian yellow Coticule and stropping it well over a 100 times afterwards on both the coarse and fine leather side of my Thiers-Issard paddle strop. The resulting shave was not any better than I got before honing and stropping. It's not worse, but there is definitely no improvement.

In order to get it really sharp (passing the HHT test is my goal), I am really considering honing it a lot more on my Coticule. I know that such a thing can take hours or even days considering the grit of the Coticule, but that seems to be my only real option. My honig and stropping technique is good, that is one thing I am absolutely sure of.

Can anyone help me out on this? I have a Coticule and a Thiers-Issard paddle strop at my disposal.

Thanks.

Nice avatar. Is that a Westmalle Tripel?

Have you used that Coticule with slurry?
That really is an important question.

Does the TI-strop has abrasive pastes on it? (I 'm not familiar with their strops)

Welkom op SRP,

Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart

Nice avatar. Is that a Westmalle Tripel?

Have you used that Coticule with slurry?
That really is an important question.

Does the TI-strop has abrasive pastes on it? (I 'm not familiar with their strops)

Welkom op SRP,

Bart.

Yep, that is a Tripel. I did use the Coticule with slurry created with a small 'bout'. The strop is a two-sided paddle strop with a coarse black leather, and a finer brown leather. I did not apply any paste to it.

Ask the vendor if it was honed with tape. If so, then if you hone it without tape you are wasting your time unless you re-set the bevel.

As Bart pointed out, slurry on the coticule will drastically increase the hone's ability to remove metal. Then use it without slurry for final polish.

A Coticule with slurry is usually an avid cutter, but there's a downside.
The maximum sharpness levels off at a certain stage, that usually shaves only marginally.
The most likely explanation is that the slurry itself causes some slight roundness at the very tip of the edge. That doesn't make Coticules lesser hones, it's just something that needs to be accounted for when using them with slurry.
Coticules are also excellent finishing hones, when they are used with water only. They are very good in polishing the edge and add smoothness and comfort to the shave. The big problem is that in the water mode, most Coticules don't do much else than polishing. They are too slow that way to further refine the resulting edge after the slurry treatment.
I don't like to compare the grit ratings from synthetic hones with Coticules, but for the sake of clarification, you could look at the Coticule with slurry as a 1K hone and with water as a 12K hone. This illustrate why the Coticule is having a hard time bridgeing its own gap. Should you have a synthetic 4K hone, I would reccommend to use that to make the edge as keen as possible before polishing it on your Coticule with water, but since you have no 4K, we're left with two less than ideal options...

1. The first thing to try is to start with slurry and slowly dillute is with 2 drops of water per 10 laps, till you're left with plain water after about 100 laps. Keep pressure as low as possible.
Strop it and test shave. Sometimes this method gives fabulous results, sometimes not. It's a fairly inconsistent method, but it doesn't hurt to try.

2. This option is a bit more bold. If the razor shaves after option 1, but not as good as you think it could (but it really must shave, otherwise don't bother), then you can add two layers of electrical insulation tape to the spine of the razor. Next, hone 15 light laps on the Coticule with water. This creates a secondary bevel, and because all honing action is diverted to a very small strip at the apex of the edge, the Coticule with water will move enough steel to offer you an entire new shot at more keenness. It is very important to do this with the lightest possible pressure. The downside is that the razor has now a secondary (micro) bevel which complicates its next honing job. (It takes a bit of extra honing, should you ever wish to undo the secondary bevel). You can strop it without the tape (there's enough cushion in the leather to affect the secondary bevel).

Don't hesitate to ask more questions, 'cause this is advanced stuff.

Bart.

Originally Posted by Utopian

As Bart pointed out, slurry on the coticule will drastically increase the hone's ability to remove metal. Then use it without slurry for final polish.

Utopian, you must be a psychic. How could you know what I had yet to write??