Thread: "Shave Ready" ... Yeah, Right.

Cornelius,

One of the problems with this forum is that it is so rich in information, it can become very confusing.

Take the razor you received off the forum member. Wet your face with warm water and apply soap.
Now holding the razor at an angle no more than 30 degrees (This means the razor is almost stuck to your face so the edge can not possibly hurt you) gently shave down your cheek. No more. Now, wash your face and feel if the razor removed your whiskers. If it did you may wish to reconsider your views. If it didn't shave your face, you have a right to complain.

Let us know what happened.

If your not prepared to even try the razor on your skin, nobody can help you.

Incidentally, you will only get more disappointed by spending money on hones at this point.
First you need to feel the razor on your skin. It should cut your whiskers just the same as a plastic gillette twin blade.

Please let us know. We can then help you to move along the path to shaving happiness. It does however take a little patience and at the start quite a bit of time. So hang on in there.

Originally Posted by Chris L

Where did you get the information that a coticule is "coarse"? We may need to have the person that posted such info make a correction, addendum or clarification if that info is in the Wiki.

Chris L

Here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/285357-post16.html

Originally Posted by Bart

Were are you? I'm in Belgium. If you like, I can take a look at them for you, and asses how they are / what they need. Just drop me a PM if I can help.

Bart.

Hi, thanks, I'll drop you a PM.

The Dovo is brand new.

Originally Posted by Cornelius

Here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/285357-post16.html

This is my fault.

I linked to that post a couple of days ago. I should have linked to the entire thread.
It's an advanced discussion. Coticules don't rely to grit ratings well.
Peoples always want to think of hones as of sandpaper. They want to give each hone a number and line them up in a honing progression. Coticules do not work that way.

80% of my presence on this forum is because I like to help people out with honing and shaving.
This makes me want to give up.

I am sorry.

Bart.

Originally Posted by English

One of the problems with this forum is that it is so rich in information, it can become very confusing.

Aint that the truth!

Originally Posted by English

Take the razor you received off the forum member. Wet your face with warm water and apply soap.
Now holding the razor at an angle no more than 30 degrees (This means the razor is almost stuck to your face so the edge can not possibly hurt you) gently shave down your cheek. No more. Now, wash your face and feel if the razor removed your whiskers. If it did you may wish to reconsider your views. If it didn't shave your face, you have a right to complain.

I'm not complaining nor accusing anybody, just need to air my frustration You know, I'm new to all this and dont want to take any chances, so I'm reading as much as I can trying to figure out what to do. I almost bought a USB microscope yesterday. I'm ready to buy the hones, I just dont know which ones I need. Some people seem to do without coticules, others swear by them. How's a newbie supposed to know what to do? Sure, I could buy a Norton 4/8, a blue coticule, a yellow one, a Sharpton 16k, a microscope, a strop, a DMT plate, and now as I just learned in the videos I'm watching, a 1200 diamond bevel setting coarse stone. It all makes sense. But still, you've gotta wonder how hard it can be! My granddad used to shave with a straight and I doubt he had all this equipment or even all the knowledge we can so easily and instantly access these days and I'm sure he got decent shaves. Or maybe he didnt, I have no idea.

Originally Posted by English

If your not prepared to even try the razor on your skin, nobody can help you.

LOL, that's for sure. I was prepared to try it, but read on here that "new razors are NOT shave ready no matter what they tell you" and everything related to it, which confirmed the idea that this is indeed so unless you buy the razors from SRD or RW or an experienced member, so I'm holding off until I know what to do, that's all.

Originally Posted by English

First you need to feel the razor on your skin. It should cut your whiskers just the same as a plastic gillette twin blade.

Ok, I'll try it and will let you know.

Originally Posted by Bart

This is my fault.

I linked to that post a couple of days ago. I should have linked to the entire thread.
It's an advanced discussion. Coticules don't rely to grit ratings well.
Peoples always want to think of hones as of sandpaper. They want to give each hone a number and line them up in a honing progression. Coticules do not work that way.

80% of my presence on this forum is because I like to help people out with honing and shaving.
This makes me want to give up.

I am sorry.
Bart.

Don't be so hard on yourself. Your input and help is most valuable. When the topic is something as arcane as hones (and worse yet, finishing stones) there will be the occasional confused moment.

Originally Posted by Bart

This is my fault.

I linked to that post a couple of days ago.

Yep, that's where I got it from.

Originally Posted by Bart

Peoples always want to think of hones as of sandpaper. They want to give each hone a number and line them up in a honing progression.

Yes, I'd like to picture mentally where these fit in the process. Telling from the videos, it's after the 4k side of the Norton?

Originally Posted by Bart

Coticules do not work that way.

That's the part I dont understand.

Originally Posted by Bart

80% of my presence on this forum is because I like to help people out with honing and shaving.
This makes me want to give up.

I am sorry.

Bart.

Perhaps you could explain where the coticules fit in the honing progression? I seem to gather that the difference is related to particle shape in the coticule. Wouldnt that give it a sort of, err... classifiable abrasiveness, even if it's not a grid in the sense of a FEPA / CAMI standard?

Coticules have garnets instead of the sharp particles that you'd find on most synthetic hones.
Garnets are (more or less) round, multifaceted particles. With water and another small piece of Coticule, you can produce an abrasive milk (generally called "slurry" on SRP) on the surface of the Coticule. In the slurry the garnets spin underneath the steel and act as tiny grinding balls. That makes a Coticule with slurry a relatively fast hone, but the resulting scratch pattern is much gentler that that of an comparably fast synthetic hone. On the other hand, when you don't produce slurry but instead use only plain water on the hone, the garnets stay partially embedded in the surface and the hone becomes much slower, and the scratches are very shallow. Therefor it is very good in slowly smoothing out the scratch pattern of even amazingly high-grit synthetic hones. The polish that a Coticule leaves at an edge seems, for many shavers, to hold the ideal combination between smoothness and keenness.
Bottom line: Coticules are very much "double use" which makes them versatile, and the only hones in the world (to my knowledge) that can be used to give a razor a full honing with just one hone. Beware, this is not easy to do and the razor must be in reasonable condition.

With slurry, most Coticules are fast enough to do the work of coarser hones. You then need some in between stone to really boost the keenness of the razor. Once you're there, you can go back to the coticule, with water this time, and give it the final polish for a smooth shave. This is only one of many ways to use a Coticule.

I hope this clears some things up for you.

Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart

80% of my presence on this forum is because I like to help people out with honing and shaving.
This makes me want to give up. Bart.

Don't you dare give up. I have learned one hell of a lot from reading your posts and I want to continue to do so.

Originally Posted by Bart

Garnets are (more or less) round, multifaceted particles. With water and another small piece of Coticule, you can produce an abrasive milk (generally called "slurry" on SRP) on the surface of the Coticule. In the slurry the garnets spin underneath the steel and act as tiny grinding balls. That makes a Coticule with slurry a relatively fast hone, but the resulting scratch pattern is much gentler that that of an comparably fast synthetic hone. On the other hand, when you don't produce slurry but instead use only plain water on the hone, the garnets stay partially embedded in the surface and the hone becomes much slower, and the scratches are very shallow. Therefor it is very good in slowly smoothing out the scratch pattern of even amazingly high-grit synthetic hones. The polish that a Coticule leaves at an edge seems, for many shavers, to hold the ideal combination between smoothness and keenness.
Bottom line: Coticules are very much "double use" which makes them versatile, and the only hones in the world (to my knowledge) that can be used to give a razor a full honing with just one hone. Beware, this is not easy to do and the razor must be in reasonable condition.

I see... wow, sounds good! The slurry you're mentioning and that I saw in the video reminds me of the Kasumi 1000 stone Ihave for my kitchen knives, except that that produces slurry without the need to use the small stone.

Originally Posted by Bart

With slurry, most Coticules are fast enough to do the work of coarser hones. You then need some in between stone to really boost the keenness of the razor. Once you're there, you can go back to the coticule, with water this time, and give it the final polish for a smooth shave. This is only one of many ways to use a Coticule.

So which color coticule are you talking about? Blue or yellow? Which stomes do I need before using a coticule?