Coticules

[TristanLudlow]

Hey guys,

just wanted to share a picture of my 2 natural combo coticules and a small combo coticule that lost the yellow side.

The top one belonged to my great grandfather, the yellow side is getting thin; the other ones I bought somewhere.

I just lapped them a bit, so they're a little wet / dirty on the sides.

I can see a big difference IRL, the one from my GGF looks smoother and cleaner and weighs a ton, the layering is different; the other one is bigger but lighter and was really dirty, probably saw a lot of use.

I have yet to try out these hones as I just re-started with straight razor shaving so I can come to a conclusion about them.
But I remember the top coticule to give amazing edges.
I also had outstanding edges coming off the BBW. I'm not sure what I prefer, the BBW is also amazing.

Anyway, I will try to upload a close up, good quality pic of the surface later on.

The DMT left scratches on the surface unfortunately, not too happy about that, but I'll probably rub my coticules and BBW together to get rid of 'em.

Cheers

[Botanic]

The one from the bottom looks like a syntetic stone.. too jagged line of transition

[RusenBG]

Man, its not fair -my grandfather left me only 1 Crown and sword razor / amazing shaver/ and half piece of J.Henkels strop . Yours leaves you 2 combo coticules . Its not fair at all . Beautifull hones , by the way . Enjoy .

[TristanLudlow]

The one from the bottom looks like a syntetic stone.. too jagged line of transition

It does look strange to me too, I'm doubting what it is right now. It does create a milky white slurry at first and quickly turns more yellow-ish, ditto for the other side, purple BBW like slurry but turns a little darker than what I'm used to. It's also lighter in weight.
My phone sucks and my pictures are not worth much, I can't show clearly.

My greatgrandfather left me his 2 razors, a natural combo coticule and his strop.
I received 3 Solingen razors (Bartmann, Gondola and Hans Reif from friends of my grandparents)
I bought 1 Grelot myself and 2 Henckels. I'm set for life.
Just bought a Naniwa honing set from 1k to 12k that I will use to learn to hone on. But since my grandfather used a combo coticule, I'm inclined to go that route too finishing wise.

Thanks RusenBG!

[JimmyHAD]

It does look strange to me too, I'm doubting what it is right now.

In my experience it is not unusual to find a coticule with a "jagged" line of transition. In fact there is another thread current on SRP with one that is very like that. I would bet it is a coticule. How cool to be able to hone razors with your grandfather's coticule.

[yohannrjm]

I also think that may not be a natural stone. While Jimmy is right, and coticules can have strange interfaces with BBW, the hone looks really weird (if it is a coticule). The chips look like they're from a manufactured hone too. The pics are not clear enough for a final determination but it looks 'gritty' in the chips.

[Utopian]

Yes, the chipping is much more suggestive of a synthetic hone.

[gugi]

Just bought a Naniwa honing set from 1k to 12k that I will use to learn to hone on. But since my grandfather used a combo coticule, I'm inclined to go that route too finishing wise.

This should make your life pretty easy. First learn to hone using the progression of the naniwa hones since with them you can easily verify that the razor is getting sharper on each stage of the progression.
When you have that working well start by using the coticule just with water once the razor is honed and see the difference that the finishing stage makes.
After that you can go into using slurry on your coticule to replace part of the progression and if you stick with the razors you already have you will probably never have to attempt edge repair with just a coticule.
You may end up happy with just one or two hones, or may want to have all of the hones and look for even more - only time can tell.

[JimmyHAD]

Well I was wrong once before ....... make a slurry on the BBW side, or whatever it is ..... and if it is purple, chances are it is a natural stone. I have seen a synthetic that looked like that years ago (on SRP in photos) so ......... one way or the other, having Grandfather's stone is cool whatever it is.

[TristanLudlow]

Thanks for the replies everyone!
My RAD is under control, although that hasn't been easy, but being fortunate enough to have been given quality razors just makes it easier to not go out and buy a ton of others. I could never choose, so I'm glad others have chosen for me.


HAD is flaring up atm, definitely looking into a larger size coticule or a larger size BBW. But the Suehiro 20K sounds verrryyy interesting too. For no good reason at all. I'm all set.

But as gugi said, I will first go through the Naniwa SS progression and learn to use it solely and successfully and when I get the hang of honing and get a good feel for the edges on razors, I will eventually go onto other things as coticules and/or the suehiro. Etc.

happy shaving y'all
'preciate the input!

And just to add to the conversation, my greatgrandpa's razors were made by Goedecke & Co in Solingen. and the razors are named/model "Mandarin".