Thread: Honing and stropping

Hey all,
got a couple of questions,

I've got two hones,
a threeline swaty and a natural combo coticule,
I'm wondering , for touching up a razor how many strokes would I do on these?
sometimes I'll use the swaty and other times I'll use the coticule.
I've been looking and seems I best use pyramid system on the combo,
and if I were to use the swaty maybe 5 strokes or something?
Just to be sure I don't overhone and get as best an edge I can get.
How much is too much or not enough? I don't know. ( I know this isn't an exact science tho)

About the natural combo, been reading quite some stuff about dry honing on the finer grit, not sure what would be best, dry or wet ;o.

Then onto stropping,
I like to use the linen side first and then onto the leather side,
but I have no idea rly how many strokes would be a good number.

Thanks for any input

The instructions that come with the Swaty say that you should only use as many strokes as necessary. I guess that is common sense but it more or less says if you need more use more. I think that 4 or 5 strokes each way ought to be sufficient or maybe you need to go to the coticule.

Bart has some great coticule honing info in the SRP Wiki, archived threads, and here at his Belgian coticule website. If I am honing a razor after the bevel set I would use the BBW with slurry and follow up with the yellow side with water. If I was just touching up a razor or looking to get a smoother edge I would use the yellow with water only. Other than barber hones I've never used a hone dry.

For stropping I do 50 linen 50 leather before the shave and 20 leather afterwards. Some guys think that is too much but it works for me and I need the exercise.

aaah ok nice,
thx for this, now I got some guidlines
appreciate you commenting

Some good info in here if you haven't read it.

Originally Posted by penguins87

Hey all,
I'm wondering , for touching up a razor how many strokes would I do on these?

Can only talk about the Swaty, I don't have a coticule. The longer you go between touch-ups, the more work you have to do. If you wet the Swaty with water & just a little soap, when the razor is ready you will get a heavy, dragging sensation, like there is honey smeared on the hone.

Originally Posted by penguins87

Just to be sure I don't overhone and get as best an edge I can get.

Barber hones seem a bit prone to overhoning, so I like to finish with 3 backward strokes, then another 3 forward strokes to remove any burr that may have been raised.

Originally Posted by penguins87

Then onto stropping,
I like to use the linen side first and then onto the leather side,
but I have no idea rly how many strokes would be a good number.

I do 50/50. The good news is, it's practically impossible to overstrop, so if the strop is not restoring the edge to your satisfaction, there's no harm in trying more laps.

Having zero experience with barber hones, I can only offer advice about touching up on the Coticule.

It depends a bit on your particular specimen.
First try touching up with only water on the hone. I would start with 30 laps. It there's improvement, you could try 30 more. A Coticule with water is very slow. You won't do anything detrimental to the edge on the Coticule with only water on the surface.
It's possible that your Coticule is so slow on water that it only polishes the edge a bit without much keenness gain. It's also possible that the edge has dulled beyond the grasp of the Coticule with only water.

I that case, you can try 30 laps on very thin slurry. I mean very thin. Only the slightest hint actually. (Don't use heavier slurry, cause that will reset the keenness of your razor to an early honing stage.

Another option, that I haven't tried myself, is to use the barber hone to revive the sharp edge on the razor, and aim for additional smoothness on the Coticule with water. I'm not sure that's required after a barber hone, but it would not do harm to find out if the Coticule can add something beneficial following the barber hone.

On a final note: pyramids between a Belgian Blue Whetstone and a Coticule won't work. It works great on the Norton 4K/8K and on the Naniwa Superstones. But not on the Belgian tandem.

Best regards,
Bart.

thank you all!