Thread: Help needed!

Hi everybody!

It`s nice to have found a place with so much information, I`ve been reading so much new helpful posts lately. I`m new to straight shaving, just had my first real straight shave today, but I already ran into some small problems.
I previously used a cut-throat with replaceable blades, and I used Wilkison DE blades, so I know how a "shave-ready" blade should feel like, to start with anyway, because it could get better.
That being said, I decided to purchase a straight razor and get into real straight razor shaving. My new Dovo 5/8" Black Classic just came yesterday, new out of the factory, and my first impression, with the shave I got today, was that it is really not quite "shave-ready", or at least not wat I expected it to be. Reading the posts in this forum, I know that the Dovos aren`t quite as sharp as they should be when coming out of the factory, but the problem is that here, in Romania, few people have heard of straight razor, so the idea of finding a honemeister to professionally hone this razor is out of the question.
That`s why I bought a Coticule. A small one, it`s true (it`s a bout #4), about 4/1.5 ", and I`m thinking I should hone the razor myself. But I need some kind of advice on where to start, because the Unicot and Dilucot methods seem to be very "agressive", because they establish a new bevel. My new Dovo shaves, it is sharp, but not as sharp as I think it should be. So any ideas would be helpful coming from you guys.
Oh, I also have a leather/vynil strop, stropping the blade hepls but it is still not there. I also have no idea what the vynil side of the strop is for.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

Hi Alex. Welcome to SRP!

Without knowing the condition of your edge or how well your coticule cuts or finishes it's tough to say anything for sure. The good news is that it's pretty tough to overhone with a coticule, so you could probably do about 20-30 strokes with water only then check your edge and repeat as needed. If you end up doing a lot of strokes they won't hurt your razor, so long as your stroke is good. The big risk is that if your stroke is poor you could damage the edge to the point of needing to be sent out for repairs, and the more strokes you do, the bigger the risk.

Does your coticule have a belgian blue on the back of it? Do you have a slurry stone?
If you need more sharpening than what you get with the coticule and water you could go to the BBW with a light slurry, then to the coticule with water.

Thanks for the quick answer.

To get to your questions, no, the Coticule is a Selected yellow bout, but it`s got only one side, as the other side is the piece of unusable rock that the coti is glued to. Also, the coti did not came with a slurry stone, so I can`t really raise any slurry on it, except while actually honing.
The blade was straight out of the factory, so I was very carefully in honing it, always lookinf that the blade be straight flat on the Coticule. However, because it`s so narrow, I could`t say for sure. After 20 or 30 passes on the Coticule with water only, the razor could barely pass the HHT (I had to cut the hair very close to where I held it), but after 30 strokes on the strop, it was better. The shave was not bad, comparing to the ones I had with the wilkinson SE, but I felt that the razor was pulling the whiskers a little, and after the shave was done, it left a 5 o`clock shadow.
I guess I`ll be trying to do very light strokes, with no pressure, on the coticule with only water, the day after tomorrow, to let the blade "rest". Thanks on the advice so far.

Alex

Alex can you post a picture of your coticule? That "unusable rock that the coti is glued to" is likely to be either a piece of slate or a piece of BBW. If it's BBW you can use that in honing as well.

There is no need to let your blade rest. You can work on it more today if you want to.

Well, I could very well be wrong, but that`s what it says on the producer`s site: Bout selected-I-4, Belgischer Brocken Vertrieb - Bout 8 selected, extra-extra, Belgischer Brocken, Schleifstein, Coticule, Schärfstein, Wetzstein, Onlineshop, Naturstein
I believe they call it "unusable black shist".

Anyway, here are the pictures. Any other advice on that matter would be very helpful.

Thanks,
Alex

Aw shist!

Just keep working on the coticule with water then. Maybe next time try more laps than you did this time. It is a small stone, so it will take more laps that way as well.
Remember, you can't really overhone with it. You just need to be careful about not damaging the edge.

Thanks for the great advice!

I do have another question. I read the forums but I couldn`t find any referral to the vynil strop. My strop has leather on one side, and black vynil on the other side. Is it the same as having canvas? If not, than what is it good for?

All the best,
Alex