Thread: Salm Rock/Old Rock Coti's vs Other vintage Coticules

So i've began using Coticules exclusively on my blades. At least for the moment my Thuri's are getting a rest while I master my coti's. I have been getting great shaves off a vintage Pike No. 1 Fine grade 7" coti and a barber's Special grade coti 4"x2". I'm dying to try a Salm Rock or Old Rock coti but haven't gotten my hands on one yet. How would they compare to what I'm currently using? I don't have a pic of the pike at the moment but I've attached a pic of the barber's special.

I have one of the labeled "deep rock - speckled" coticules, and it is a *beautiful* stone. A friend gave it to me in exchange for selling the rest of his stones.

The unfortunate truth about it is that it's a bit coarse and not a great finisher.

(I guess what I'm saying is that if you have a good finishing coti, I'd stick with it. You might have to buy 1 to find another, and you might have to buy 5. Some number of those might be tolerable, but "great" in the sense of point and shoot isn't that common in my experience. Which makes it harder to sell the great ones for what they should cost, because who is to believe you?).

I have to agree with Dave. I've 'been there, and done that' with the labeled Deep Rock, Old Rock, and the fabled Salam coticule. I've had two of the Old Rocks and one was better than the other, actually pretty good. The Deep Rock was so- so, and the Salam was beautiful but ho-hum. Not bad, but not better than the better coticules I've had that didn't have labels adorning them.

There was/is a well known honemiester on this forum, who departed to start his own. Nice guy, heck of a honer, and experienced with a plethora of stones. He once posted that out of 100 coticules, he only found 3 that were worthy of honing razors. Anyway, he found a Salim that was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and touted it to the skies. Much to my gratitude, because I had bought it 'right' before that, and was able to realize a good price when I sold it.

So my advice would be, unless you are a collector of rare labeled stones, don't pay a premium for that piece of paper, or labeled box. It might be great, or it might be average. You pays your money, and you takes your chances.

Thanks, Jimmy. You probably just saved me some money on a future expenditure. Your post covered some several different questions I had concerning labeled coticules, and then some.

'He once posted that out of 100 coticules, he only found 3 that were worthy of honing razors'

Then I must be a lucky man as I've yet to find a coticule not worthy of honing razors

There's a vast difference between being able to finish a razor and being able to finish it as well as an escher or jnat.

Coticules work better if you let the linen establish and condition the edge and never quite let the coti work to it. There are just a few exceptions to that with cotis, but most of them will seriously dull a good linen edge if you let them remove it.

Jnat's will just make the linen edge seem snappy, and same with the eschers.

Originally Posted by mikew

'He once posted that out of 100 coticules, he only found 3 that were worthy of honing razors'

Then I must be a lucky man as I've yet to find a coticule not worthy of honing razors

agreed....got around 20 Cotis now....did not found one which was not usable on straights ;-) either with or without label....they all give good results and as earlier mentioned 3-5 of them are extremely good!

Not talking about Old Rock, Deep Rock, Pikes or Salm Cotis...never owned one of those....

Originally Posted by mikew

'He once posted that out of 100 coticules, he only found 3 that were worthy of honing razors'

Then I must be a lucky man as I've yet to find a coticule not worthy of honing razors

They all can hone, question is to what level of finish.
Like any natural rock quality will vary and it can get very expensive to find the right one for one's taste. Same with Eschers and especially Jnats.

Originally Posted by scag315

I'm dying to try a Salm Rock or Old Rock coti but haven't gotten my hands on one yet. How would they compare to what I'm currently using?

Bit like asking what is the difference between a red Ferrari & a yellow Ferrari.
the answer is "it depends".

There are stones that have reputations due to a certain consistency in performance but even nature makes lemons.

I like their yellow color.

James.