Thread: First coticule experience

I bought a very pretty (tigerstriped) and very small (holy unit conversion error Batman!) coticule off the bay. Got it in tonight and gave it a try.

It felt....gritty. Is this normal?

Hi, is the Stone lapped? Maybe its a bit rough from wrong storage or surface damage, i have several Coticules and no one of them felt gritty in the first time use. How are the Results, how does the deg look?

I have a Belgian Coti, took a lesson in using in from a honemeister, he lapped it for me, geez, he also picked the coticule and the double sided slurry stone for me and lapped it as well.

If felt absolutely smooth.

Was also cool seeing how on one side of the slurry stone (the lighter colored half) it would make an almost yellow creamy slurry, very fine, and the blue half of the slurry stone made a darker bluish slurry that was much grittier when you rubbed it between your fingers.

That was about two months ago, still practicing strokes to "refresh" a razor. Holding the coti in one hand, using a kind of L stroke with the blade (using water on the coti)...I know absolutely zero about honing, and just learning Step 1 on how to refresh my razor, I can tell it takes tons, and tons of practice to get consistent at it. Right now, it's hit or miss, with miss being the most.

Next lesson, I will get my blades checked, he will see how I'm using the coti, make some corrections, and then I get to find out what the blue side of the slurry stone can do.

Getting an even refresh along the blade was driving me nuts...now, if I feel and frustration coming on, put it down and try later.

YMMV...

Originally Posted by jgjgjg

It felt....gritty. Is this normal?

Do you mean while honing or when you rub it with your finger?
The first is normal for a fast Coticule, the second is not normal.

Originally Posted by fuzzychops

Do you mean while honing or when you rub it with your finger?
The first is normal for a fast Coticule, the second is not normal.

The slurry stone he gave had two sides, one like the coti, yellow, and the other side of the slurry stone was blue, which produced a lower grit. Haven't used the blue side yet, was using language for the post to illustrate that two different grits could be generated.

I could feel a difference between the two, but remember, that was my first exposure to this, and was more listening to what was being said. So I probably wasn't clear in my post...sorry!

Smooth to the finger, rough to the blade. I will shave tomorrow and report back.

About the consistency comment: yeah. With stones, I have paid too much to get bigger and thicker. What I always want, for any tool, is no less than 8" of length and width about half inch more than what I"m sharpening, and thickness of at least 1".

The point is so that with any tool, the stone can rest on a bench and I concern myself only with my motion and posture. This is a dinky little thing I have to hold in my hand and stroke to stroke consistency is real tough.

Originally Posted by jgjgjg

Smooth to the finger, rough to the blade. I will shave tomorrow and report back.

About the consistency comment: yeah. With stones, I have paid too much to get bigger and thicker. What I always want, for any tool, is no less than 8" of length and width about half inch more than what I"m sharpening, and thickness of at least 1".

The point is so that with any tool, the stone can rest on a bench and I concern myself only with my motion and posture. This is a dinky little thing I have to hold in my hand and stroke to stroke consistency is real tough.

There's an entire separate thread going on, was reading it today, about how holding the stone in one hand, the blade in the other, allows important feedback from both the stone and the blade...interesting stuff!

Meh....I'm willing to concede that "razors are different". But.

With knives, which are similar, I'm willing to go to the mat on this. The best feedback comes from the same posture (seated or standing) everytime, the same locking of wrist and elbow, everytime, same breathing pattern, everytime, same same same everytime. No music, no
kids, no visual distraction: all your focus on the feel in the hand, sound on the stone, and a mindfulness around not letting touch and hearing get overridden by the sight water in front of the blade.

How you get that consistency with stone bouncing around in your other hand I've never been able to figure. Heck, I'll suffer a full size pair of shapton stones on a long hiking trek with the boys scouts because I can't abide the inferior edges gained using a high grade but dinky hold in the hand stone. Anyway, I'll quit before I start to ranting.

Originally Posted by jgjgjg

Meh....I'm willing to concede that "razors are different". But.

With knives, which are similar, I'm willing to go to the mat on this. The best feedback comes from the same posture (seated or standing) everytime, the same locking of wrist and elbow, everytime, same breathing pattern, everytime, same same same everytime. No music, no
kids, no visual distraction: all your focus on the feel in the hand, sound on the stone, and a mindfulness around not letting touch and hearing get overridden by the sight water in front of the blade.

How you get that consistency with stone bouncing around in your other hand I've never been able to figure. Heck, I'll suffer a full size pair of shapton stones on a long hiking trek with the boys scouts because I can't abide the inferior edges gained using a high grade but dinky hold in the hand stone. Anyway, I'll quit before I start to ranting.

As I mentioned, I know absolutely zero about honing...just tipping my foot in the water with a coti to learn to refresh.

Check out the other thread, discussion was going on with people that are experienced with honing and the process, which completely, utterly, excludes me!

Originally Posted by jgjgjg

Meh....I'm willing to concede that "razors are different". But.

With knives, which are similar, I'm willing to go to the mat on this. The best feedback comes from the same posture (seated or standing) everytime, the same locking of wrist and elbow, everytime, same breathing pattern, everytime, same same same everytime. No music, no
kids, no visual distraction: all your focus on the feel in the hand, sound on the stone, and a mindfulness around not letting touch and hearing get overridden by the sight water in front of the blade.

How you get that consistency with stone bouncing around in your other hand I've never been able to figure. Heck, I'll suffer a full size pair of shapton stones on a long hiking trek with the boys scouts because I can't abide the inferior edges gained using a high grade but dinky hold in the hand stone. Anyway, I'll quit before I start to ranting.

Im with you on this. Even with a small pocket stone its on a flat surface. I like to stand and don't know how it would be comfortable sitting. That said its different for everyone. The old barber I see(he is 65) said his dad(also a barber and who he learnt off) would stand with a coticule in his hand not even looking at the stone while sharpening and talking away to the customer who brought the blade in for sharpeneing. That's some skill. Then again apparently he did honing almost every day.